The Flowers of Spring
by emiliesravin
Summary: Red Beauty. Ruby and Belle are both single parents. Ruby's little girl and Belle's twin boys start their school year together and become best friends, but also their mothers are getting closer. (also romance)
1. You're kind of bubbly, y'know?

"Hurry! We will be too late!"

The little girl in the back seat yelled excited. She was used to her mother always being too late, even when she picked her up from her Granny's.  
"Someone's pretty excited to be finally going to school, hu?" The taller one grinned teasing, not letting her eyes leave the road once.  
"Sometwo!" She protested in response. She lifted her star shaped pillow high and added "Nataly is excited too" with a wide smile. It showed that she had missing tow of her teeth causing her to slightly lisp.

The car turned left and stopped. The early excitement was suddenly gone and instead the girl was scared.  
The tall woman left the car, went to the other side and unbuttoned her daughter. She lifted her out of the car, took her hand and placed the tiny rucksack on her own back.  
"Come princess, we're going to look for your class room"

Once they arrived the girl didn't want let go of her mother's hand. She had started crying on their way here when the older one tried to leave. The little ones chocolate eyes were having a red frame.  
"See, I will be standing right there in the back of the class. Whenever you're scared you look back and you will see that I'm not gone" she smiled.

It broke her heart to see her own daughter that scared but she knew that she would feel save soon enough.  
The class slowly filled with people: mothers, fathers and most of all children. Two boys took a seat on each side of the afraid girl. They tried to cheer her up successfully and a small giggle even escaped her sobbing throat.

The boys, about 6 years old just like her, introduced each self.

"I'm Nathan," the left boy said,  
"and I'm Lucas. We're twins" the right one added.

Both of them had proud grins on their faces. They must feel very unique about the fact that they are both twins although they didn't even look that much like twins at first sight. Giving them a second look their relation was really obvious. You know that, when two people don't look exactly alike but you still know they are related? It's the same with these two boys. Nathan had dark brown hair with slight waves, while Lucas had light brown hair with tiny curls and his hair was way shorter but both had those piercing blue eyes.

"I'm Sofia," the little girl who, other than the pair, had blond hair, said "You have the same name as I do" she turned to the right boy.  
"but my name is not Sofia?"  
"not that, but my name is Sofia Lucas so-"  
"you have a boy's name?!" Nathan laughed.  
"No I do not!" Sofia wrapped her arms around Nataly as a furious gesture.  
"You just said it yourself! You have a boy's name you have a boy's name!" The twins started in union.  
Sofia was close to tears again. She looked around the room searching for help and ended up back at her mother who gave her an encouraging smile.  
Sofia looked at Lucas and said, "Maybe you just have a girl's name?"  
The boys seemed to have lost their voices. They obviously weren't ready for that to come.

Just that moment a young woman entered the class and the bell seemed to welcome her with it's ringing.  
She had short, dark hair and skin as white as snow. Her eyes were light green to blue, like ocean and her cheeks blushed red.  
"Hello" Her voice had warmth in it, no wonder she was a teacher the children were taken by her already.  
"My name is Mary Margaret Blanchard, and I'm going to be your teacher…which is amazing for me. I'm sure we are going to have a lot of joy discovering new things together. I also welcome the parents."  
Mary looked around the classroom, enjoying the presence of everyone. Sofia's mother couldn't help the feeling that she'd know Mary already. Maybe, she figured, it was her memorable presence.  
"How about we all introduce ourselves? Let's start-" she searched the class and ended up in the front row "-oh here. You introduce yourself, and your parents also. Your name, where you live and your favorite animal, then you ask one of your classmates."

The tiny boy's eyes grew wider. He had red hair and freckles placed all over his face  
"I'm August" he swallowed nervously "i i i live in Storybrooke and my daddy is over there and our dog Pongo is at home. my fa-favorite animals are crickets"  
The class started laughing at "crickets" which made his cheeks turn as red as his hair. The whole class laughed except for Mary Margaret, and the parents though. Mary lowered herself to be on eye level with the boy and asked "Crickets? That's a very extraordinary animal. I have heard they are wise" her smile made little August more comfortable. His eyes filled with a surprised joy and so he said "They taught me not to lie and I could whisper them everything"  
Mary looked at him for a moment before saying "Great choice. Do you want to ask another classmate?" She felt a relieved sigh from Geppetto, his father.

Several children got asked and the parents already liked their children's new teacher.  
The major's son, Henry so they just figured, asked Sofia and she introduced herself with the excitement she had this morning. Sofia was always rather outgoing and easy to make new friends. She had learned that from an early age ever since she was with her mother at her Granny's who owns the towns most loved diner. She had lost most of her fear so she started.

"My name is Sofia. I'm as well from Storybrooke. My Granny makes the best pancakes ever." She turned her head and pointed, "This is my mummy, her name is Ruby" she smiled proudly and thought for a moment "oh, and my favorite animals are wolves."  
The blonde was getting really hyper at this point, and Ruby started to giggle at her.  
"She's adorable" Ruby heard someone whisper to her left. She turned and was faced with a young woman, probably her age, with an inviting smile. Ruby's face blushed and she turned her face to look at her daughter. "Thank you, I know," She giggled proudly.

She turned to ask Nathan as only Lucas had been asked before. "My name is Nathan. We live in Storybrooke too and this is our mommy Belle"

His tiny finger pointed to the woman next to Ruby.  
"So you are-"  
"Belle" Belle said.  
"Ruby" Ruby gave as reply. They shock their hands and Belle's face started blushing as well.

Although they had just met, Ruby felt that Belle was a nice, honest person.  
"Our kids seem to get along well-" Ruby whispered but soon was cut of by her very own daughter. "Psh, Mom!" The little blond gave her a daring look, with her finger on her lips. As soon as she turned back to listen to Mary's words, Ruby and Belle couldn't help their laughter.  
"We've heard her, we ought to pay attention" Belle said swallowing yet another laugh.  
"Agree, not that Ms Sofia will get mad at us or worse" Ruby gave as response. She had to bite her lip. They sighed and looked back to face the front. Both had red blushed cheeks and both had to work really hard to not let out another round of loud laughter.

The bell rang for the last time that day and the three of the children hurried to run to their parents.

"Can we go outside to the playground, Mum?" The boys asked their mother, holding each their hands as they would pray to the gods the new and the old for their mother, who, in response smiled and answered "Of course, but hey stay on the playground."

Ruby and Sofia watched that scene and Ruby didn't even have to look at her daughter to know that she is watching her with big, puppy eyes, still hugging her pillow.

Ruby kneeled down and asked, "How would you like it to go outside to play with the boys?"

Of course she was excited and let out a tiny "yay" and before they knew, the kids were outside. Belle and Ruby only heard "Nathan, Lucas wait up for me!"

"We better look after them, you know?" Belle suggested. Ruby agreed and the both went outside.

It was about noon and it was a warm autumn day. The sun was high. The school had a big playground right in front of the building with many digits to play. Both were searching the playground for their little ones.

"You got'em?" Ruby asked. Her hand was giving her a saving spot of the sun.

Belle narrowed her eyes and looked in the other direction "There they are." She said and pointed to the swings.

The two boys were playing "free swing, taken swing". Basically, it's Sofia asking if she could swing for once and one of the boys stands up, he says then "free swing". When she's walking towards the free swing he seats himself down again and says, "taken swing. You should have been faster." Which only causes that the boys laugh and Sofia frowns.

Lucas didn't do it as often as Nathan did, and indeed after several minutes he offered Sofia the swing for real. Nathan looked a bit upset, and started to laugh at Sofia for no reason.  
"You can't swing as high as I can!" He stretched his legs high in the air and back to the ground, getting speed, all while Ruby and Belle were watching.

Ruby thought it was kind of cute, though, while Belle thought her son had a mean behaviour.

Both of the women hadn't spoken much since they came here, instead they supervised their kids.

Belle was about to open her mouth. She wanted to tell Nathan to stop it but she was stopped by Ruby who placed her hand on her arm. "Hey" Ruby said with a smile "it's okay, she can take it. You not know this yet but my little one is tomboy. I'm surprised none of your boys started crying, yet" she smiled at Belle who didn't find it so amusing, though.

Ruby tried to calm her once more, "He's just teasing her a bit, wanting to show off, make a point that he's the boy here." Now even Belle was smiling. She was right, though, and Belle knew that and soon after that the three of them played together, Tag it, Ruby guessed.

The sun was now at its highest point. Belle and Ruby had started a proper conversation, which often caused them to end up laughing at the most banal things but not all too serious matter. They gave each another advice and they even argued about what's harder: to raise one girl or two boys. They came to the conclusion that they didn't know.

Ruby looked at her watch. It wasn't until then that she realized that it's already been 1:40 pm meaning her shift at the diner would start in 20 minutes.

"Oh shit" She said under a breath. After explaining herself to Belle she yelled "Sofia! We need to go!"

"Please Mommy, not yet!" The little ones ran to their mothers and Sofia's hair swayed with the wind.  
"Please Mommy, pleeeeeease" Sofia pulled at the end of Ruby's purple shirt, begging to stay.

"You know Granny will be upset if we're too late again" The corner of Sofia's eyes started to fall. "Please Mommy" She whispered, it almost broke Ruby's heart but it most definitely broke Belle's heart because that moment she said: "I have got an idea"

The kids listened up, as she lowered herself to their eye level. "How about we all go to get lunch at Granny's diner?" The kids looked at each another with a sudden grin on their faces. All four faces, including Belle's, looked up to Ruby with an asking expression.

_So many cute faces…,_ Ruby thought for herself. She looked at her swatch nervously then to the faces then back at her swatch. "Okay! But we need to hurry, okay guys?"

The kids hugged their mommies and they ran to the parking lot. Belle didn't seem to have a car so Ruby asked if she needed a ride.  
"We'll be fine, thank you. Uhm… we'll meet at the diner! Sofia can go with us though, she wouldn't have to wait for the boys" Once again, Ruby didn't even have to look at Sofia to know that she's making another one of her infamous puppy faces. Nobody, not even Granny who's stubborn as hell can say no to that little puppy face of Sofia's. "Okay! But please be there as soon as possible. Please."

The mothers looked into each another's faces and Belle saw that Ruby was worried. Of course though, a woman she hardly knew offered to take her only child for a walk but Belle didn't have any harm on her mind. Belle laughed out loud "Hurry! We'll be there latest 15 minutes, promise!"

With that Ruby found trust. She stepped into her car and before she turned on the motor to drive off, she let out a last deep sighed and looked at her daughter, who laughed sincerely.

* * *

1:58pm. "Close enough" I thought to myself. Just when I entered the diner Granny walked towards me with her hands in the air. "Where the heck have you been?" She looked around noticing that I was all alone, "where's the little one? Ruby-" I could hear the slight panic in her voice.

"It's alright, Granny. She's playing with kids and will be here soon to eat. And thank you, I'm grown up myself I think I can handle the responsibility to be here in time not to mention, take care of my own child!"

I couldn't help but laugh, slightly shaking my head at how wonderful Granny actually is. Although she's stubborn, she's so caring especially for our little princess. I made my way in the back to the kitchen, to prepare some French fries for the kids already so they wouldn't have to wait all too long, but I figured that I didn't even know for sure if they wanted French fries so instead I waited.

Leroy entered and ordered his usual let's call it "afternoon snake", which included a portion of fries, a strawberry milkshake, a cheeseburger and a hamburger to go. For a short man like him he sure can eat a lot. Not many people came in that afternoon anyway, some couples to have a coffee and the sheriff to have his tea.

After about 15 minutes after Ruby's arrival Belle and the kids entered and filled the diner with loud laughter. Sofia ran to a table and yelled, "First!" and the two boys tickle-attacked her. It looked adorably cute until Belle called them off. "Guise, behave! We're in a restaurant"

The kids had noticed that she wasn't all too serious about it but they still calmed down a bit. I took a sip from my water when Belle looked for me and finally caught my eyes. A calm smile peaked on her face. Granny had already brought them milkshakes and all three of the kids got different coloured milk-moustaches. At the sight of it I choked on my water, causing it to slip out of my mouth and right on my shirt. Bless I wasn't wearing a white shirt.

I looked up and found an all too much giggling Belle looking right at me. She shook her head at me and then turned to the kids. "So guise, what do you want?" Belle asked the round of children with moustaches.

Lucas was the first to answer, "I want french fries!" I heard him say, shovelling one portion into the boiling oil. Nathan asked for a cheeseburger and I knew Sofia would like to have pancakes even for lunch. I prepared the things and brought them to the table.

"What do you want?" I smiled at Belle's face. She hadn't quite paid attention instead she was busy reading a book. It seemed heavy but the cover looked amazing. She looked really cute while reading each line with new excitement. Belle lifted her head and thought for a brief moment before she answered that'd like waffles. Sofia raised her tiny hand and demanded a high-five.

It didn't happen often that she'd find someone sharing her love for breakfast at any daytime.

I finished the waffles and along with honey-syrup and fruits I placed them in front of Belle.

"Here ya go. Oh and I also brought you an iced tea, I thought you might be thirsty."  
"uh thank you" Belle looked up to me again and gave me the most genies smile which I've received from her so far, which caused me to almost drop the plate I was holding.

The afternoon passed by so fast. The kids had run upstairs, as Sofia needed to show them her toys. There were only Belle and I left in the diner, but I had to clean up so she was just ghosting around.

"Need some help?" She asked with that adorable Australian accent of hers. Before I could answer anything she was already in the kitchen. Of course I said no but she kind of overheard it on purpose.

Belle's a bit shorter than I am, although she's wearing high shoes. She walked to the other side of the kitchen, looking for anything she could do until she found the sink filled with dirty dishes. She picked up a pair of plastic gloves. I was watching her curiously asking myself what she might do next.  
Woops, and there went a whole bottle of soap. I figured she might be more of the dishwashers-type.

In front of her built a tower of white bubbles. She was trying to reach the faucet but obviously couldn't find it behind the white wall. I couldn't stop the laughing to be quite honest. She was already wearing a crown of bubbles then I realized that the wall was close to breaking in.

I hurried up to the sink. My hands smashed into the wall, making it fall over us but hey at least I could turn of the water. I still laughed like a maniac when I caught Belle's sight. She looked like a scared puppy for some reason and she kept apologizing until I made sure that it was all right.

I took a hand full of the bubbles and placed them under my chin so I was wearing a beard. I cleared my throat and she was smiling at me. I tried to fake a southern slang and said "howdy yang lady. Let's just clean up, y'all." This made her laugh out and I laughed with her.

I turned around to get some sponges. Right when I turned to give her one, I was bombed with bubbles. "Oh" I said knowing while she looked innocent at me with a huge grin on her face. That was a dare, "_Oh, it is on."_

* * *

_A/N: _it was a pleasure to write this and oh so much fun. i would really love to hear your opinions on this and i plan further chapters! So review review review!  
you can also inbox me on my tumblr. help me out to improve my writing guise haha  
love, lala (⌒▽⌒)


	2. Little Secrets

_**A/N:**__ thank you all who've been reading so far, I hope you like it. this chapter should have been all about Sofia/Ruby but instead it became…let's say darker. I've been listening to Bastille's "What would you do?" a lot recently and I had the need to build deeper characters. Enjoy :)_

* * *

The kitchen looked like it was filled with snow when it really was covered with billions of white bubbles. In the middle of the room Belle and Ruby lied on the floor and the empty air was filled with laughter.  
They had been throwing bubbles at each another and each of them got their part.  
Belle's eyes had tiny tears in their corners from all the laughing while Ruby wrapped her arms around her stomach, protecting. She could feel her muscles tighten and relaxing with each gasp of new air but neither of them could breath properly. In union, they finally sighed and their bodies could relax.

A silent moment passed by and Belle watched Ruby gathering herself. Ruby looked in the air. Belle noticed for the first time that Ruby's eyes weren't just green. Her eyes had a green like the forest but the extraordinary part was that shimmer of a yellow-gold. Belle wondered how she hadn't noticed it earlier. For seconds she watched the eyes, figuring out every color that they reflected.  
Slowly her own eyes moved down to Ruby's smiling mouth. It was infecting, she felt her own mouth corners raise and her cheeks blushing.  
That moment seemed to happen in slow motion. Short after that she was shot back to reality by the sound of Ruby's voice.  
"We should clean up" Ruby's head moved to face Belle and Belle responded with an agreeing smile.

* * *

The cleaning up took us less time than we thought. After everything was in their place Ruby shot me a proud grin. Together we made our way upstairs to her apartment. We went to the bathroom and cleaned ourselves up. While I dried my hair with a towel Ruby went to change her clothing. Her hair wasn't half as wet as mine ever since she had it together in a tight ponytail.

After a couple of moment she came back. She changed her purple shirt and jeans to a pair of pajama pants and a tight dark shirt with long sleeves. In her arm she was holding another two pair of pants: for once a sweat pants and a pair of jeggins; and also a long sleeved shirt.  
"Here, you might wanna change to something dry yourself" She smiled sweetly.

I don't know her for long but long enough to know that she smiled honestly. Whenever she smiles she means it and doesn't do so to fake her personality.  
"Thanks"

She placed her clothes next to the bathroom sink and closed the door behind her after giving me another last smile.  
While I brushed through my hair I saw that my cheeks had got a burning red color, which made my eyes seem bluer than they already were. I inhaled and remembered today.

I couldn't help but think of how happy Nathan and Lucas were all day and how Sofia became wilder and wilder with each passing hour. It was such a blessed day. I was happy the twins made friends with anyone besides another.  
Lucas usually has troubles finding a place in a group Nathan has it easier there. I guess that's the reason why Lucas is shyer and quiet around new people while Nathan is loud and outgoing.

My thoughts lead me to that moment when Ruby held me back when I wanted to calm Nathan down. Most parents whose kids played with the boys were upset whenever Nathan behaved like this, but Ruby seemed to understand. It's hard, though, most times I don't understand my own son myself. Nathan is one the kindest and most sensitive children I know, he sometimes just forgets to think of other's feelings, too.

My smile had fated at that thought. I put on Ruby's clothes. The jeggins first and while I pulled her shirt over my head I inhaled her perfume. It smelled like roses, which fit her perfectly, I thought.  
I looked in the mirror again and saw that my cheeks went back to their natural color, a soft pink tone. I tip toes through the apartment and tried to make as less sound as possible. The hallway was lightened and I saw Ruby's silhouette standing in the frame of a door with pink and monster inc. stickers. I walked closer and looked over her shoulder. As I thought the room indeed belonged to Sofia. I leaned on the other side of the frame, standing opposite to Ruby.

Both of us looked at our sleeping kids. It made me smile the way they cuddled to each another, well more like on each other. Sofia was lying sideways using Lucas as a pillow, while Nathan was using her as a pillow. The whole room was a mess. Guess they'd been wrestling or something like that.

"She never had many friends her age" I heard Ruby say. I looked at her while she was still watching her daughter. She smiled, still but it looked rather sad. She must have been thinking. "I mean she had guests in the diner but still, she was always rather alone, because … I don't even know that-" She sighed while rubbing her head with her palm then her voice lowered to a whisper "probably because of her." The last bit wasn't meant for me to hear. Although we only met today I already feel like we met a long time ago. She looked at the floor then up to face me while she let out another sigh. When she saw me it seemed like she had fell out of her thoughts and her face lit up again. She did shake her head to wake up entirely.

"I'm sorry, I shouldn't bother you," she laughed quietly. We couldn't be too loud because of the sleeping ones.

I waved my hand and shook my head. "No, you don't, at all. You've done so much for us today and it's just great to get to know you." I looked over to the kids and repeated what I had already said earlier that day "she's really adorable." It was true, though. She must look like her father because she doesn't look a bit like her mother. Sofia's hair had a golden shade, with big waves and they seemed to reach the floor. She reminds me a lot of Rapunzel, or at least how I always pictured Rapunzel to look like.  
Nathan and Lucas look a lot like their father, too. Both had his nose and ears. A sudden panic filled my inner. I looked out to find a clock. Damn it, how late was it?

My breath became heavier as I started to panic. Ruby had placed her hand on my forearm but it didn't help much, and that I found the alarm clock, which said that it was already passed 10 didn't help either. Just when Ruby pulled my shoulders down with her hands and forced me to focus on her, I felt my breath getting better.

"I- i- " I tried to speak. God, Ruby looked so worried. I didn't want her to be worried. "It's too late."

Confusion had joined her face by now. She rubbed my arms and made me look deep in her eyes. I could see that she tried to understand what's happened. My button lip shook and I tried to gather myself, really hard. She told me to inhale and exhale and inhale and exhale and she tried not to rush me or forced me to talk. I will forever be thankful for this moment because she didn't force me to talk. On the other hand, I was sure she thought I was mentally unstable.

My breath calmed down completely and she came closer. Ruby hugged me. It wasn't rushed or hesitated. It made me feel less anxious and more comfortable. I let go of the hug a few minutes later.  
Ruby said calmly, "how about I wake the minis and then drive you home"  
"you don't have to-"  
"I would love to." With that she made her way over to Sofia's bed. She cupped her daughter's cheek the way only a loving mother can do before lowering herself to her level. She started whisper, "Rapunzel, Rapunzel let down your hair" to which her daughter responded with an unpleased groan. But it had the wished effect and the children woke up.

All of them needed to regenerate themselves a bit and they stretched their little arms high into the air while letting out yawns. I turned on the lights in the room and soon found their shoes and jackets placed properly on and under coat hooks. It was funny how everything laid around thoughtlessly, yet the jackets and shoes were in place.

The drive to our house was silent between Ruby and I, and the trio behind us found fun in playing "I see what you can't see" which was simply adorable. Adorable because it was night and everything around us was dark but still they found small colorful items to ask for.

"Can Sofia see our room, mommy?" Lucas asked when the car stopped.  
"Maybe tomorrow, it's late and you all have to go to sleep"

I left the car and while the boys left the car, as well I lowered myself and talked to Ruby through the open window.  
"It's been a great day, thanks," I said.  
"Same, it was a lot of fun. Glad out lil's get along so well."  
I had drawn my mouth to the left side in agreement. The boys waved at Sofia and thanked Ruby for the day also. I was having a proud-mommy-moment because I didn't need to tell them to thank Ruby, they just did. I bit my button lip for a moment trying to hide an enormous grin.

"Well" I shot back in the air "until another time, Miss Lucas" I looked in the back of the car "good night Rapunzel, and may you have sweet dreams." Half awake, half asleep she nodded her head before snuggling into her star shaped pillow.  
I walked back to the porch, made a slight movement with my hand and waved them goodbye, so did Lucas and Nathan.  
I opened the locked door and fast as the wind the boys ran upstairs to their room.

I hadn't yet entered when I looked to the parking lot and saw Gaston's car was already there. He must have been home earlier I tried to think calmly.

"Don't forget your teeth, boys!" I heard myself yell upstairs. Way slower than the boys I moved upstairs finding, to my pleasure, Nathan and Lucas in the bathroom with their brushes in their tiny hands.

I had hand them their pajamas: Lucas has a Flynn Rider one from the movie Tangled while Nathan has a Cars printed one. Barely in their nightgown they sprinted in between their bed sheets. Despite their hype they still had to be tired, I smiled to myself and when I reached their room they had already fell asleep. I kissed their foreheads and whispered them "I love you" before looking at them for one more time. I closed the door behind me entirely. Usually I leave it open for a peak but I knew they'd hear us then.

All while I walked to the other side of the hallway my heart gained speed and fear came over me. I had to be confident now. Before opening the doorknob I inhaled deeply.  
Our bedroom was dark and I felt myself in relief. I went to our bathroom, which was in our bedroom to change my clothing. I still wore Ruby's clothes. I placed them next to the sink and put on my own pajamas.  
For the last time that day I remembered it and a smile crept across my face again. But as soon as I entered the bedroom, where the only source of light was coming from the bathroom, I saw Gaston sitting on my side of the bed and my face lost all sight of color.

"You're late" He said with his hard voice.  
"The boys played with a new friend and fell asleep," I explained myself. The loud sound my heart made against my throat bones was scaring me.  
I walked closer to our bed and Gaston moved for me. I lay back on the bed and immediately Gaston looked over me. "I needed you." is all he said with his voice cold as ice.

"s-sor-" The moment I tried speaking I had regretted it. My face burned caused by his hand flashing across it.

* * *

Sofia fell asleep immediately. I tried carefully not to wake her up when I carried her to her bed and changed her clothing. Sometimes she'd pout her nose when I wrap her into her bed sheets but not this time. I cupped her face and felt her warm cheek.  
When she sleeps I see her parents most in her. Sofia has her mother's blond hair and her nose, but her lips belong to her father. Her eye color is a mix of both. She knows she's not my birth child and she knows I'm not her birth mother, but I am her mother.  
I see her little body breathing and her face was calm. I noticed Nataly was still sitting on my lab so I placed it next to Sofia. I kissed her forehead and whispered "Goodnight, Princess."

On my way out of the room I took some toy items with me to put them back into her treasure box next to the door. One thing that crossed my sight was a drawing she had made: A little blond girl next to another taller blond girl and a taller brunette. There was also another tiny person with grey hair who I figured was Granny. She held a plate of pancakes taller than herself. I looked at the age, Sofia loves to sign her pictures with her name and age, 5. So she must have drawn it about a year ago.

My eyes looked up to the sleeping child and I wondered how often she thinks of her mother. I think of her everyday. Sofia has a lot of her quirks like the cinnamon on top of her cacao for example.  
To that thought I had to smile. I remembered how her mother once split cacao all over shirt in Granny's diner, I knew then that I needed to ask her out but I never did. It was her who kissed me at a Halloween party and her who asked me out then. My heart swell and became heavier.  
When we decided to have a child together, it was the second best moment of our life together. The first place is and forever will be Sofia's birth.

"I Iove you," I said to sleeping Sofia with a soft smile before closing the door behind me almost entirely.

* * *

_**A/N:**__ *cries* _

_I wanted to create a more serious storyline although I hate the thought of my cupcakes being hurt._  
_Please review, comment whatever you need to tell me and if you want it fluffier, just keep reading ;) _

_love, Laura xx _


	3. The song of silent women

The first week had passed fast. Sofia, Nathan and Lucas had spent every afternoon together, either with Ruby in the diner or at Belle's where they played all around their house. Yesterday they had all spent the afternoon together in the nearby park. There's a pool for children to splash around and ever since it was really hot that day, Ruby and Belle figured it was a great idea. Obviously the three of their little companions agreed.

While Sofia, Nathan and Lucas enjoyed the cool water on their skins, Belle and Ruby watched over them. The grown ups talked about all kinds of things: of their favourite television shows, their favourite books but they ended about talking about what they had experienced the previous week. Ruby told that Sofia drew a picture of the five of them together and Belle couldn't help but "aww" at that. She had reserved a special spot in her heart for Sofia already but after hearing that she locked her in there.

Belle told that Mary Margaret asked if the three of them had known each another from earlier because they were incredibly bond already. The mothers looked over to their kids. They threw water high in the air and let it fall on their faces before ducking into the water with it.

Without taking notice, Ruby and Belle sat closer to each another. So close their hands almost touched. Belle looked over her shoulder and found herself in a position where she was in way too often these last days: she was watching Ruby's face. She studied every tiny inch all over again. Her eyes travelled from her hair to her eyes to her nose until the reached her mouth. At the sight of Ruby's naturally pink lips Belle's own mouth parted slightly.

She swallowed heavily. She lightly licked her own lips even and bit her tongue. It wasn't until Ruby laughed out loud that Belle broke away from her daydreaming. Belle shook her head to throw her thoughts away. Belle looked over to the children, which helped not to think of the woman sitting next to her. Belle giggled at their lovableness.

Ruby lowered herself and placed her head on Belle's lap. She didn't know herself why but it didn't matter to her that moment. Belle didn't reject her so Ruby thought it was not that bad of an idea. Belle's heart started racing but she didn't say anything, she only followed her instinct.

Ruby closed her eyes and felt Belle's hand stroking her hair, she felt the warm sun kissing her face and everything was amazing. She had become so close with Belle these last days but it didn't scare Ruby. The opposite is the case, she felt comfortable and save as if she could tell Belle everything. She slightly opened one eye and saw that Belle was looking down at her but the one above didn't notice that Ruby looked back. Belle was looking at everything of Ruby but her face.

Ruby smiled to herself and secretly hoped Belle would enjoy the sight. Belle's cheeks drew a deep red blush, Ruby noticed. Her eyes were blue like two diamonds and were shining just as bright, maybe brighter.

Ruby continued to watch Belle and her enjoyment. Belle had left Ruby's body and supervised the children but now and then she couldn't hold herself back and looked down on Ruby again. Whenever she did so Belle bit her own lip and forced herself to look away.

It was almost five in the afternoon when Ruby went to get the children. Their tiny faces begged for another five minutes. Ruby pulled her sleeves back. She was already wearing short pants so there was no need to pull them higher. With a small jump she was in the one-meter deep pool. The water only reached her tights. She grinned at Sofia and winked.

Suddenly she started to lightly splash the water on the children from behind, not caring that her shirt was dripping wet by now. She groaned and woo'd. The kids laughed endlessly, so did Ruby.

"Wolf!" Sofia laughed out loud and swam away. But Ruby took big steps towards her. "Nom nom nom, Little Princesses Nom nom nom". She hugged her own kid from behind but Sofia somehow managed to turn around in her grip and tried to duck her mother into the water. Ruby played along and let her daughter push her under water.

With a tiny hop Ruby was over-water again, though and had Sofia in her arms. She opened her mouth and pretended to nip on Sofia. "Nom nom nom" she said "you're also a wolf now, by the way" Sofia's belly started aching from laughing so hard but she was save in her mother's arms. The wolves moved towards the twins and with another wide movement of their arms the boys were caught.

Ruby lifted the three of them out of the water and Belle was already walking towards them with a bunch of towels. Ruby sat herself on the side of the pool and watched as the children ran to their rucksacks and sat down in their towels while drying themselves.

Belle was standing next to Ruby and handed her the last towel in her hands.

"Thanks" Ruby looked up and took it. Belle was smiling down at her. She lowered herself and sat next to Ruby. Their legs were floating in the water. There was a small length different seen when their legs were sailing like that. Belle hit Ruby's leg jokingly. Ruby then swung her upper body into Belle's and in response Belle splashed water into Ruby's face.

Ruby laughed at her and said she had given up. Belle grinned victorious, that moment Ruby hugged her from behind and fell with her into the pool. Underwater Ruby had started chuckling but going back up and seeing Belle with such a shocked-but-still-laughing face was giving her the rest.

Belle went to the edge and lifted herself. As she stretched out of the pool her shirt went slightly up and revealed a big, purple bruise going up her side to her belly. Ruby's throat swallowed and she ducked Belle's shirt back down all while Belle was still getting out of the pool.

Both standing on dry ground now, Ruby wanted to ask after the bruises but then she saw another purple spot she hadn't seen before going from the side of her neck to a bit under Belle's ear.

* * *

When I woke up that Friday I barely could contain my happiness. My mum had woken me up with the softest voice. She poked me until I opened my heavy eyes. "Sofia" she said "Birthday Princess" then I realized it was my birthday that day and I jumped off my bed in an instant.

After getting dressed I ran downstairs, all while grinning from one cheek to the other. Once I reached the diner Granny hugged me and threw me in the air. "Happy Birthday, little miracle!"

Granny calls me miracle because she thinks it's a wonder my mummies had gotten me. She called me miracle since I was born, I think, well I can't remember when she started calling me miracle or wonder but I guess she did so since ever.

The guests in the diner had noticed the excitement coming from us, and Leroy asked what the matter was. "Our princess has her special day, today" and then Leroy lowered himself and looked in my face with a friendly smile. From behind his back he pulled a tiny daisy and wished me happy birthday. I think he knew it was my birthday before and he was simply playing a joke on us. Anyway, I hugged him and thanked him. He lifted me and seated me on one of the higher chairs. Granny had repaired me a big plate with pancakes and strawberries and a cup of cocoa.

I had noticed that our teacher Ms Blanchard was sitting not far away from me with a mug of cocoa. I went over to her and looked up at her. She welcomed me with a soft smile. "Wow, this looks amazing!" she commented on my delicious dish, I grinned in response.

"I like my cocoa that way best, either" I took a sip of my own cup. She had cinnamon on top of hers and I also said "I hope you're happy with our service" to which she laughed. I didn't know why, though. Mummy said that a lot to guests, too so I figured it would fit right now. "Yes, Sofia. I'm very happy with your service."

I liked Ms Blanchard she was friendly. Last Wednesday a bird even flew on her fingers because they weren't afraid of her. She has a really nice nature and everyone likes her immediately.

My mum came over with my lunch bag and my rucksack and lifted me. "Princess don't need to carry their own bags on their birthdays." Then Ms Blanchard looked up with a surprised look on her face.

"It is your birthday?" New excitement filled my body and I shook my head yes. "Happy Birthday!" Her surprise turned to a wider smile. She took a look on her watch and said that she had to go.

Us too, though.

* * *

I waited in front of the school building for Sofia to have finished but I didn't have to wait for long. As soon as Sofia exited the house she saw me and ran towards me, before looking left and right for coming cars.

"Hi, C'mon Princess, hop in" and she did as she was told.

Usually Sofia's birthday was our family day so I planned something special for today as a surprise. The first bit of our car ride Sofia told me everything that had happened in school that day. How everyone sang Happy Birthday for her and let her play with every toy she recommended and that although she could play with everything there was, she rather spent her play time with Nathan and Lucas and Henry, the mayor's son.

The mayor was a cold woman and mean but when she did anything for Henry she was the kindest. She truly loved her son; I had noticed that while Sofia's time in kindergarten. Henry and Sofia never played back then, well at least I couldn't remember mentioning her playing with him. Sofia was really alone but never lonely, she was just rather to herself.

Sofia watched the changing landscape outside the window. I stroke her hair to which she closed her eyes and I could see on her face that she wasn't thinking anything at all that moment. She was simply smiling.

Another bit of time had passed, our car ride would take us one, three-quarters hours at least. Sofia was drawing little bodies with her finger on the window while Nataly was laying on her lap to kill some time.

"Stop that, little" I said while putting her hands down. She looked down and up to my face. Her facial expression had changed without me taking notes. "Everything's alright, Sofia?"

I usually call her nicknames but not when I ask her such questions. She looked at me for a second or two with sad eyes, her fingers rested motionless on her pillow. Before she said anything, I knew what she was going to ask. Then she asked as quiet as a whisper "Did mommy call?"

It broke my heart. Her mother had called every year on her birthday and Christmases and Easters and even names days but this year she didn't call on any of those events, except New Year. One a half weeks into January was when she called.

"I'm sure she will call", I said although I wasn't sure if I was lying or not. Sofia turned her head and looked out of the window again. Then she added, "I think she won't."

* * *

Belle folded the laundry while her sons did their Math. Lucas understood it faster; he was able to count the numbers together within only a few seconds. Nathan was a bit behind and seemed to be stuck at one exercise completely.

While folding another piece of clothing Belle asked if he needed her help but Nathan literally ducked under his own arms and said almost aggressively "No, I can do this on my own!"

Lucas had already begun with his exercises to practice reading, which he loved anyway like his mother does.

Nathan's face crunched together and you could see he was close to tears. He wasn't used to be not good at things. On the other hand he was never really challenged before. Well, not as much as math challenged him anyway.

Belle had just finished the entire laundry and Lucas was also done with his homework, but Nathan only reached the half of their exercises, yet. Whenever Belle or Lucas offered him any help he refused it, and became really aggressive towards them.

Belle looked into Lucas's booklet and figured that their exercises where in between the numbers of 1 to 20 so she went to the kitchen and started searching the dashes until she found what she was looking for.

With a box of chocolate bites she sat next to Nathan. Nathan stared at his booklet and seemed to have forgotten everything.

She told him to look up and he did so.

She told him to inhale and exhale deeply and he did so.

Now she told him to count to ten with his fingers and out loud, both. He did so really slowly. The bigger problem for him to comprehend was actually reading the numbers. When Belle told him to write the numbers down he started sobbing but he still went on. She then took his booklet and asked exercises he had already finished.

"2+2?" He started counting with his hand and said four. "Great, see you can do it! I knew you would. And now something a bit harder, okay, 9 + 3 is…?" Again he started counting but when he reached the end of his fingers he looked lost. "Ten..." he murmured and looked around for something comparable to his hands. He then took Belle's fingers and said "eleven, twelve!"  
"Is that your final answer?" Belle teased slightly and after recounting all of their fingers he said yes.

Belle would let him write down the numbers himself first but it insecured him so she wrote them down with his hand in her own.

After twenty minutes or so Nathan was now sitting on his mother's lap and was almost hungry for more calculations. They had already reached the last exercise and Belle said "ok, finale. If you get this one right, you'll get some chocolate /before/ dinner" Nathan's eyes widened. He had desired a bit of chocolate since Belle had placed it in front of him.

"5+8+7?" Belle said. She had heard Nathan add many maths problems today, and the last bit went really smooth for him and so did this one. Almost immediately his answer shot: "20!" he yelled "Can I have chocolate now?" His eyes wandered over the table and reached the box of chocolates.

Belle smiled softly and stroke his hair. "'Course, sweetie. But get your brother first. He's getting some, too."

Nathan ran out of the room and Belle could hear him scream his brother's name. Belle was about to stand up when the boys were already behind her again. She gave both of them each a piece of chocolate, with nuts for Lucas and with caramel for Nathan. Many people found it ironical that Nathan loved the sweet syrup while Lucas loved the nuts, because they thought that wouldn't fit their personalities. Belle had thought so, too some times but truth is, although Lucas is way shier and quieter he's stronger than Nathan.

Belle allowed them to watch television while she was cooking dinner, a homemade pizza. When it was about time to put the topping on the pizza the boys had a say what they'd like to have. Belle asked the 7 years olds to put plates on the table and glasses also, and they loved to do so. They love to help their mommy with such tiny things. It made them feel important and mature.

At about 8pm Gaston arrived. Belle served him his dinner and the boys seated next to him. Nathan proudly announced his mathematical success from that day and Lucas pointed out that he was way faster at it. Gaston even had to chuckle a bit. He clapped the boys' shoulders and told them a well done.

Most of the time when Gaston laughed it disgusted Belle. The only reason they were still together was for their children. If the boys weren't to grow up without father the other way, Belle had left Gaston a decade ago. She grew up without a mother and it was horrible. She often felt alone but she found friends and family within the bright walls of the library. Her father was a busy man and hardly ever had time for his daughter, and she didn't want this to happen to her sons.

Even though Gaston hit her and did worst things to her, if that was the price she has to pay so her children would have a father, then so it should be. She could take it, she knew that, even if it meant that she would hate her own husband. He had only harmed her and not once touched the children, Belle was glad to know that.

She silently ate her salad and let Gaston tell them of his day. She wasn't really listening though; she only ate her salad and drank iced tea. She saw that his mouth was moving but everything he said sounded like a numb noise to her. It wasn't until he asked her a question that she listened up.

"Sorry, I was lost in thoughts. What did you say?"

"I asked how your day was." He stated coldly and aggressively towards her. Before she could say anything Lucas spoke up with excitement "Today is Sofia's birthday and tomorrow we're invited to go to her birthday party!"

Gaston's gaze was still focused on Belle and it felt like a cold wind was blowing towards her. He asked while chewing on a piece of pizza "Sofia?" He didn't even think it was worthy to say more words although the children had talked about her almost all day, every day.

"She's their classmate, remember they told you all week about her? Her mother works down the streets at Granny's diner. Don't you ever listen!"

His face started to glow bright red and his eyes were slowly drowning with anger. Belle didn't dare to look away but she knew she was save for now. Gaston wouldn't dare to play an act in front of the children, never to mention in the dinning room where big windows were and people could see him.

Neither knew how long they'd been staring at each another but it wasn't until one of the boy said that it was times for the football game, that they broke the look.

The rest of the evening was rather quiet. The twins went to bed earlier and so did Belle. She had already slept when Gaston entered their bedroom again. The signal red light of the alarm clock told her that it was already one a.m. when Gaston went to sleep just didn't he sleep immediately. He touched Belle roughly between her legs but all she did was shut her eyes close and hoping she would only dream.

* * *

It's been a long day. While they were still in the car Ruby tried to cheer her daughter up as best she could. She encouraged her that her mother would not forget her birthday and that she were sure she already called at home. That kind of helped the little princess and after she fell asleep on the car ride she was filled with new energy.

They rode to a lake with rented bikes where nobody besides them was. They were all by themselves. Ruby taught Sofia how to catch fireflies and Sofia started to sing fireflies by Owl City afterwards. Ruby had also prepared a pick-nick and Granny had baked delicious cupcakes for Sofia and Ruby.

The whole day flew by way too fast in both their opinion. Once they were at home Ruby read Sofia her favourite tale by Andersen: The princess and the pea.

Sofia fell asleep on Ruby and because she didn't want to wake her smaller self, she didn't leave but stayed all night.

It was close to sunrise when Ruby woke up and saw that Sofia was ducking her tiny head into Ruby's belly. Ruby cupped her daughter's cheek and stroke lousy hair strains out of her face, revealing that she was sucking on her thumb. Ruby had to smile. She couldn't believe how tiny Sofia looked and neither could she believe that she won't stay as tiny forever.

Ruby lifted Sofia off herself slow and calm, trying hard so she wouldn't wake up, which she didn't. On her tiptoes she went out of the flat and downstairs to the diner, where Granny was already baking fresh bread and pastry.

"Morning" Ruby grinned through the window that's meant for the orders. Granny looked up at her with a smile and replied with a just as good mooded "Morning."

Ruby felt uncomfortable and remembered her daughter's biggest fear so she asked: "Did she call yesterday?"

"Who?" Granny asked without looking up.

"You know who" Not even then Widow looked up to face her granddaughter. That was answer enough for Ruby and her facial expression turned to stern.

* * *

I took my car keys and told Granny to look after Sofia and that I'd be back soon.

Everything happened fast. Without even realizing the passing time I parked in front of a big house. It was enormous, even compared to our diner. I found myself storming out of my car and straight towards the door. I didn't even mind that it was early in the morning. With a heavy fist I bumped against the door, slightly curious who will answer it.

After minutes nobody had answered and so I went around the house. As I thought there were cars but not any car, it was her exact car, the yellow bug. I think I won't ever forget the silly story of how Emma stole that damn car but I was too energized to even bother thinking about it now. Walking pass it I kicked it. I had a sudden urge to do so I was just so angry with her and her stupid car. From behind I heard a deep voice yelling: "What is wrong with you?!"

I looked over my shoulder only to find a tall man looking at me. I knew him, of course, Sofia has his eyes and when I looked at him I looked right into her eyes, which made me even angrier.

"Oh, who's there, daddy bear!" I yelled while I threw my arms on each side. He hadn't noticed me before, obviously but now he knew me and his face turned chalk white. From behind another voice echoed. It was a female voice, sweet but raspy. "Neal? Everything alright out there?"

Emma appeared behind the man and as soon as she saw me her face was filled with panic, it was brilliant to be quite honest. I don't think she ever suffered as much as we did. Her hair is as golden as Sofia's. They were so obviously her birth parents it made me anxious and sick. They didn't deserve to be her parents. They left her!

"Ruby! wha- what are you doing here? Is Sofia okay?"

"Wow, now you care? If you want to know it, no she is not, idiot! You fucking left her, and you did not even bother calling her at her birthday. What kind of brick would do that to their own child?"

My cheeks burned and I could feel that they were deep red. I only now realized that tears rushed down my face uncontrollably but it didn't stop me from talking. Emma's jaw drop.

"Her birthday?" Neal asked. His whole face was one big question mark, he didn't know what was going on and honestly I wasn't even surprised.

"Yesterday!" I screamed. "Your daughter's birthday was yesterday and do you know what she wished for? A call! One call from her mother! One call from you, only a sign of life but no, you forgot her damn birthday!" Emma's eyes were wide and her mouth parted slightly. "I-I am sorry." She murmured. I inhaled deeply because I needed all my strength to not shout at her any longer.

I rubbed my forehead with three of my fingers. "You don't have to apologize to me"

I was surprised how calm my voice was suddenly. It was like she didn't even realize her behaviour. Maybe because she finished that chapter of her life, maybe she tried to erase us completely. I had so many emotions in me right now, which I just wanted to let out all at once but I knew I couldn't. I had already given away too many. The crying, the screaming, the anger, too many emotions. She was the cause of my pain for years now and I was getting better but we never talked about it. Until now she never gave me a reason why she had left me but this was not the time to talk about our ended relationship.

Both of them had been silent for a couple of minutes now. Emma was filled with regret but Neal's face was painted with sympathy towards me. I decided that I couldn't stand him. "Just call her, one call why is it so hard for you?" Emma looked straight into my eyes. Tears had gathered in the corner of her eyes and then she said something I would have never expected.

"Because I wouldn't be able to ever hang up the phone again. Because I miss you…"

* * *

**_A/N:_**_ hola_

_so wow that chapter was… confusing? kind of i think, a lot of open endings now and a leak of red beauty fluff i know but i promise there will be some fluff in the upcoming chapter(s)! _

_also sorry i had to present Emma as an idiot! i know, Emma snowflake would never just leave her child (again oops henry). No i meant after seeing it grow up. Sofia was about 4-5 years old when Emma left by the way.  
the most horrible thing though is to think about this "gaston-hits-my-angel-cupcake-pie-belle" storyline, like it hurts my soul to think about it. _

_this story happens before the curse broke, by the way and i'm actually already excited to maybe write a FTL chapter or scene. Who wants to guess who I had in mind to be Sofia's FTL-self? _

_I hope you enjoy this story so far and if you have any ideas, comments, reviews, anything you want to say, please I would love to hear so! :) so review_

_love, laura xx_

* * *

_do i need to mention that neither of those characters belong to me? These characters belong to ABC/Once Upon a Time, Disney and/or The Brother's Grimm and/or H. . yay ~~_


	4. My head is an animal

"…Because I miss you," Emma's voice echoed in Ruby's head. How did she dare to say something like that? Ruby couldn't think properly. Her head was empty and for a moment she didn't answer at all. She tried hard to say something but instead she could only remain silent.

Neal was just as confused and speechless as Ruby and Emma was closed to crying. She regretted what she just said and obviously she regretted all her past actions. Neal and Emma out of all people should know how it feels like being left behind, especially left from their parents.

Both Neal and Emma had experienced that and both Neal and Emma still left their only child. But Emma, furthermore, didn't only leave her child to be with Neal but she also left Ruby. Ruby whom she had sworn love to, whom she promised to stay with for the rest of their lives. That's why Ruby couldn't think because Emma lied before. Emma lied when she said "I will love you forever" and she lied when she said "because I miss you."

Ruby knew that she didn't miss them. After minutes of silence, Ruby answered calmly close to cold, "No, you don't." She didn't let Emma response instead she continued, "No, because if you missed us you'd visit us, simply call or do anything to be with us, to be with Sofia, only for a couple of minutes even. If you missed us, you would do everything in your power to be with us, like you promised, but instead you don't do any of these things. You even forgot your daughter's birthday, for Christ's sake," Ruby went closer to Emma and Neal and looked into their eyes with warning anger, "you and you, you stay away from Sofia."

Emma replied by looking down on her hands. She didn't cry nor was she sad. Neal on the other hand arrowed his eyes: "Who do you think you are?" he yelled. "You're nothing, you can't tell us to stay away from _our_ child!" Ruby looked down on Emma and then faced Neal. "Your child, huh? No, no, she is my child, and I am her mother! You both are just the people she once called mama and dad but not anymore. It is you who are nothing! You both stay away from _my_ daughter!"

Ruby was disappointed in both of them and she showed it. Neal wanted to shoot back something but he was stopped by Emma's arm confronting him. She lifted her head and looked to Ruby. They only stared and Ruby saw it in Emma's face that Emma agreed with her. Another silent minute passed before Ruby stormed off to her car.

It was still early in the morning and Ruby was driving full speed. She was angry, obviously. Emma simply accepted that she couldn't see Sofia anymore. She won't see her own child anymore and Emma simply agreed. She didn't fight or argue about it, she simply accepted it.

It didn't matter how often Ruby repeated that in her head, she didn't become less angry nor did it become less of a fact. That wasn't the Emma she had fallen in love with. Not the Emma who cooked dinner for Ruby the evening when she announced she was finally pregnant. Not the Emma she had known. This Emma was another person and she seemed like a bad person.

How could she not fight for Sofia? If she fought it would at least show that Sofia meant something to her after all. It would mean that it was her loss but in fact it was only Sofia's loss. The only person getting hurt here was Sofia.

Ruby wanted to leave it behind, to not think about this now or today. She will be having a class of children to look after the whole afternoon, she can't be angry or upset today.

* * *

Ruby went inside their diner and found Sofia grinning towards her. The little kid had chocolate sauces all around her mouth and face to be honest, which she had stuffed with waffles. She looked hands down adorable, like a hamster. It made Ruby forget about the whole Emma and Neal drama for a moment and she knew she couldn't worry about them now. Honestly, she didn't want to think about that ever again. She walked up to her daughter and kissed her chocolate covered cheeks before Ruby jokingly and exaggerated licked some of the chocolate off. Sofia crunched her nose in response.

Granny appeared from kitchen and looked at Ruby with a worrying look. A look as if she asked about what happened and Ruby only sighed and smiled. Granny understood. Widow and Ruby never needed to talk much to understand another, they simply did. Granny cupped Ruby's chin over the bar and winked with both eyes. She wanted to encourage Ruby and Ruby also winked with both eyes, but it was more of a joking response to signal that she appreciated her Grandmother.

The rest of the morning passed by quickly. Sofia "helped" out in the diner while Ruby finished her last shift for that day. Sofia would go around the diner with Ruby and ask people what they would like to have, she would pretend to write notes although she could barely write her own name and then Ruby would give her little items like a glass of water to carry them to the tables besides Ruby. The customers loved that, though but the most joy came from Sofia herself.

Ruby was standing behind the bar, and Sofia was playing in front of the diner when the door opened. An elderly man entered. He wore a strong, black suit with a black shirt under it and a black tie. Ruby saw him and sighed annoyed. While he was moving towards her, she searched every dashboard. This man, Mister Gold was his name, was there for the rent but Ruby just couldn't find it and Granny was out to buy some ingredients for her infamous pumpkin pies. "Good day, Miss Lucas," Gold said with his British accent. His voice is rather rough but as calm as a whisper.

"Mister Gold!" Ruby said with a faked excitement and as surprised as she would have only noticed him now but she continued saying "I'm sorry, I don't know where Granny put the money. May you be as kind and come this afternoon when she's here?"  
Ruby tried to sound as sincerely sorry as she could but in fact she wasn't sorry. Mr. Gold wanted such a high amount of money every month it was unholy. Right before Mr. Gold could answer Sofia appeared next to him, pulling on his suit jacket. He looked down unimpressed and even pulled one eyebrow higher, patiently waiting what she wanted. But she simply smiled and from behind her back she pulled out a red rose and held it in front of Gold. The elderly man didn't quite know what to do so he looked up to Ruby but she was just as confused.

Mr. Gold thought for a moment before he lowered himself to be on Sofia's eye level. Ruby was literally shocked to see him down there. Gold doesn't put himself down for anyone. Sofia's smile didn't faith instead she said, "For you, so you won't look that grumpy anymore." Ruby waited for some kind of anger appearing on his face but no, he smiled. "Thank you, Miss Lucas." He said. His voices sounded way friendlier although his tone didn't change. He broke the sting off a bit, placed the rose in his pocket and asked Sofia how he looked. Sofia gave him a thumbs up and Mr. Gold looked to Ruby, "I shall come later today again. Tell your grandmother to have the rent by then." Not even someone like Gold could resist Sofia, Ruby thought.

A while after Mr. Gold had left and almost at the same time, Granny, Belle and the boys entered. Belle had offered to help at the party and obviously Ruby was very happy about the second pair of hands. There were coming up to 15 kids after all. Mary Margaret had told that Sofia was befriended with everyone and that they all liked her a lot so they figured inviting all of the class was a good idea.

They planned to have the party in the nearby park. The weather was amazing and Nathan, Lucas and Sofia were running around. Ruby and Belle placed plastic plates on the picnic tables. There was a colder spot coming from a tree and they placed the food items in the shadow.  
"Mommy!" Sofia screamed from far the other side of the park, Ruby looked up and Sofia continued, "Your phone is ringing!" Ruby hadn't even noticed but her daughter was indeed right. She took it out of her pocket and read the screen display. She was frozen for a moment when she read "Emma".

Belle looked up to her and noticed that her face had lost almost all color. Belle placed a comforting hand on Ruby's shoulder and asked if everything was all right. Ruby only shook her head and finally picked up. She went some steps backwards all while Belle watched her with a worried expression on her face. She couldn't hear what Ruby was talking about but her face turned from anger to worry to even relief then back to anger in such a short time it was confusing. After a time, which felt like hours, Ruby yelled for Sofia to come. The little one took the phone and asked insecure: "Hello?"

* * *

Sofia must have known the person speaking to her, I thought, because her face changed to such a bright smile. Sofia sat down on the grass and started to pick little grass straws and threw them away. In her lap Nataly was laying, as usual. Ruby was coming up to me with her eyes focused on her daughter. She bit on her necklace, a little wolf and a basket. She looked worried. Her eyebrows were frown together and her face in general seemed nervous. Sofia was laughing, though and obviously enjoying talking with whomever she talked with. Some silent minutes passed from our side until Ruby said quietly "She is talking to her mother."

I felt my face getting a confused look and when I was about to ask how Ruby already answered: "Her birth mother...her real mother." Her voice ended in a whisper it broke my heart. She continued, "Emma lives in Boston and I was at there this morning. I told her to stay away from Sofia." She rubbed her forehead with her fingers as she continued. She told me about what had happened, all of it and also what happened this morning and once she went quiet I didn't want to bother her with all the questions I had then. I felt some kind of anger inside me. But most of all I felt jealousy. Silent panic filled my inside and I felt how my stomach started twisting. It confused me and I tried to not show any of my symptoms.

How could this Emma person leave such an amazing person as Ruby was, though? Not to mention her own child. I didn't understand how she could just leave them both behind like they were of no matter. Ruby still chewed her necklace when she realized how happy Sofia looked she even had a smile ghosting over her face.

But I knew she was still worrying, her eyes told me so. I looked down and with my hand I squeezed hers. I wanted to show her that I was there for her and this simple touch should tell her exactly that. She now looked down on our hands and she squeezed mine back.

She looked up to face me. I couldn't help but smile now, she looked less worried, way less worried almost like she had forgotten about Emma for a moment. And she didn't seem to remember right now but she knew she always had my back.

The earlier days I had wondered why Ruby felt so important to me. She had suddenly entered my life and I didn't seem to be completed without her now. This little amount of days we had known each another a strong bond connected us and I think I don't want this connection to ever break. Even now, that she was just holding my hand and gave me a smile I could feel how my face blushed and how my eyes shone. I felt save when I was with her and I wish for her to feel save when she was with me.

She sighed deeply and looked back to her daughter who was still talking on the phone. Sofia chatted away. Without taking notice I lowered my head and lay it down on Ruby's shoulder. Only when I felt the soft pressure of Ruby's head on mine I took notice. It felt right.

We stayed like this for a moment, until Sofia had hung up on the phone and ran towards us. When we let go, it didn't feel awkward or anything like that, it still felt right after all but we had to let go, though. The party won't prepare itself after all.

* * *

It was about 6 when the first parents came to pick up their children. Mayor Mills came at around half seven to pick up Henry. He almost didn't want to leave because they were still playing. Ruby asked Regina if she wanted something to drink while the kids could play some more and she openly agreed. The acceptance of this invitation came a bit surprising to Ruby, to be honest. Regina was known to be cold and repellent towards others, but honestly Regina was simply an angel that day.

Belle, Regina and Ruby chatted a bit, until Regina said that it really was getting too late and that Henry most probably would have troubles sleeping if they wouldn't go mow. They said goodbye and Sofia hugged Henry tightly. She thanked him one more time for his gift and even placed a little kiss on his cheek to which he was blushing. They thought the grown ups hadn't seen it, but Regina and Ruby were giving each another a knowing smile. Without notice they had talked for another half an hour and it took them until thirty past seven to part the kids and eventually say goodnight then.

After Henry had left only Sofia, Lucas and Nathan were left there and the twins would sleep over that day anyway. The three of them were exhausted and so the two women told them to sleep already. They went home to the diner.

Sofia was so excited all morning she would have prepared the beds already. Now there was a camp of mattresses lying on her room's floor. Ruby brought some fresh sheets from her own room to her princess's room. They bedded their children and ducked them between their sheets. While Sofia was about to doze off to dreamland, Ruby placed a goodnight kiss on her forehead. She whispered that she'd love her. She stroked her hair aside from her tiny face and therefore revealed it. Sofia tickled her nose, her tiny freckles danced on her face and then she had to sneeze.

Nathan murmured a "Bless you" but his eyes as well were closed. Belle kneeled down to her sons and cupped their cheeks. She whispered "goodnight" in their ears and said she'd love them. The constellation of the sleeping kids allowed Belle to also kiss Sofia's forehead and wished her "Happy Birthday" for the last time that day.

* * *

They closed the door as far until only a little slit was left open. As you have to go through the diner, and Granny didn't like it when visitors had to leave alone by going through the diner, Ruby did accompany Belle. For a while they were standing in the diner and the only source of light was coming from outside: the moon and the streetlights.

"Thank you for helping out today", Ruby said calmly. Belle simply waved her hand and told it off. She also added that it was fun and that she loved spending time with Ruby. Ruby felt her cheeks blushing, but she was save from being busted by Belle due the leak of light. Ruby couldn't see all of Belle's face. The only thing she saw clearly were her eyes. She never saw them shine as bright blue as they were that moment. Ruby traced her look down to Belle's mouth and noticed that Belle would slightly bite her bottom lip. Ruby figured that it wasn't a nervous biting but she couldn't figure out what else it could mean. Anyway, Ruby found her focus to be back on Belle's eyes.

It felt like an infinity that they had been standing there, looking at each another in silent darkness but in fact only a couple of seconds had passed. Ruby leaned in and hugged Belle awkwardly. Belle lead out a silent but pain filled gasp.

"I'm sorry I didn't-" Ruby tried to explain herself, "-are you okay?"

Belle started to smile awkwardly nervous and although she said that everything was okay, Ruby knew she was lying. Belle wanted to rush out of the diner but she was held back by Ruby's hand. Belle was kind of shocked by this action and tried to free herself, with success. She ran out of the diner and towards her car. "Wait!" Ruby yelled, "Please!"

Ruby was by far faster than Belle and caught up with Belle. She reached the car before her. "Wait, please." Ruby said. Belle swallowed heavily. She had taken out her keys from the bag and played with them nervously now. "Yeah?" She asked with a cracking voice, yet she tried to pretend that nothing was wrong. She even placed a smile on her face.

Ruby slowly reached for one of Belle's hands, and placed them in hers. Ruby licked the corner of her mouth and tried to think of the best way possible to say the following. Calmly and comforting, Ruby squeezed Belle's hands and said, "Just know, that you can always talk to me, okay?" Belle's eyes wetted. Ruby lifted one of her hands and cupped Belle's cheek. Belle lifted her own hand and placed it above Ruby's. She leant in it and smiled sadly. "Yea, I know." Belle said.

Ruby got rid off the space between them and hugged Belle again, but softly without hurry. Belle found herself basically burying her own face into Ruby's neck. It didn't take long until Ruby felt sobs against her skin. Many little teardrops rolled down Belle's cheek. Ruby thought she had hugged too roughly, still and when she wanted to let go Belle hugged tighter. She sobbed heavily and Ruby's heart was breaking by seeing Belle like this.

Rather suddenly Belle's head jumped up. She pressed her hands against her eyes and tried to make her crying stop. She inhaled deeply and was cut off by a row of hiccups, which caused her to groan in frustration. In between more hiccups she tried to apologize to Ruby. Belle was really upset and Ruby hated to see her like that. She felt her own inside shatter down because of the leak of knowledge of what was going on. Ruby's hands suddenly cupped both of Belle's cheeks. With her thumbs she wiped away some of Belle's tears. Ruby looked down to the slightly littler woman and smiled encouraging. "Hey," she silently said. She had lowered herself to find Belle's eyes directly, "everything's going to be okay, beautiful."

Belle reached for her own shirt. She lifted it slowly. Belle started to inhale through her nose deeply and heavily. She was trying to convince herself that she was dreaming, that she'd wake up any minute next to Gaston and that he would beat the tears out of her face. But truth is that she had to face her best friend and had to confess that she wasn't strong enough to leave her violent husband. She didn't know which reality was worse.

When the beating started Gaston promised that he'd change, he'd try everything to change so she wouldn't leave him. He had convinced her that he loved her and she believed it. When it didn't get better she tried to talk to herself, and she told herself that she'd stay because of her sons. That all of this is just something she had to go through for love but deep inside she knew that she couldn't leave him, because she was too weak to leave him. Too scared that he'd come for her or even worse… he would go after Nathan and Lucas.

Ruby was looking down on Belle's bruises. Her eyes widened at the sight of many purple spots. That many, it almost looked like one massive bruise. She also had tinier cuts. They looked like they were coming from way too heavy punches. Ruby's mouth opened and she tried to make a sound. She looked up to Belle who was still having her eyes shut. There it hit Ruby. She shot up again and took Belle. "Did he…," Ruby asked, she hadn't even realized that she started crying, "did he do-" She could hardly finish the question Belle started to nick her head with her eyes still shut. "A-and Nathan and Lucas too?" Belle shook no.

Her eyes were still shut close but that didn't stop her eyes from crying some more. Ruby took Belle's face once more and said with a heated voice, "Listen, I won't let you go to him, not for tonight." Belle shook no. She knew that if she weren't to go home now he'd hurt her worse. "I can't." "Please, Belle, you can stay here tonight." It was the first time that Belle opened her eyes since she started to confess. She hadn't seen anyone to ever cry because of her. She had never before broken anyone's heart but now she was breaking Ruby's heart.

"Okay," She said, "I stay."

* * *

Belle moved as silently as possible through their apartment. She woke up in Ruby's bed early that morning but there where Ruby had slept was nobody left. It was still dark outside but the hallway was filled with lights. She searched their apartment for the owner and couldn't find her. She somehow ended up in front Sofia's bedroom. Ruby must have taken a look at them because the door was wider open than when they had left it. The three of them looked like angels. They were so small.

Lucas and Nathan were so mature sometimes Belle forgot they were just kids now and then. They did so many things on their own, help out, do homework, even tidy their rooms, they do so many things on their own. Only when they are sleeping or when Belle has to remind them to brush their teeth Belle remembered that they were small children who needed her protection.

A warm voice behind her whispered, "oh, Belle, you're already awake?" It was Granny on her way downstairs with a bag of flour. She must have been in their diner before because she had flour right on her cheek. Belle smiled and nicked. "Did you see Ruby?" she asked innocently, "it makes me feel uncomfortable to just like ghost around here without her." Granny responded with a chuckle, "You can always feel home here."

It made Belle's heart melt. She already felt save when she was with Ruby, but when she was with Widow she felt welcome. "Thank you, Ms. Lucas, I appreciate that." Widow nicked her head, "Please, darling, Ms. Lucas is Ruby, you can call me Granny!" Belle had to giggle. Granny was genuinely kind to everyone, and Granny to everyone. Widow shook as if she just remembered what the first question was. "Ruby went for a run. Between the two of us, she was kind of upset."

Belle's heart dropped. Was it her fault? Was she upset because of something that had happened between them two the previous night?

"You look exhausted, dearie, didn't you sleep well?" Granny asked. "I did, I slept better than I do in my own bed." Belle sighed, "I just feel like taking a walk." She looked outside and the sun hadn't yet begun to rise. "I like the night." Granny looked to Belle and before Belle even asked Granny said that she'd look after the children if they woke up.

It wasn't cold. The opposite was the case it was actually warm for this hours of the day. Belle walked calmly. She was amazed by all the colors of this forest. Although it was still darker many colors were shining through the night. For once there was a bright yellow field with all kind of different flowers but all of them remained yellow. She noticed how there was a spot with purple flowers, or navy blue she couldn't really tell. The ground she walked on was rather even. She didn't think about anything while she gazed to the forest around herself. Then she spotted a tiny waterfall a bit ahead her. It looked like liquid diamonds would flow mixed with stars. The moon reflected the water so it shone with bright lights. She went closer and the light revealed a bridge and on this bridge she recognized Ruby sitting there on her own.

Belle went to her and sat down. They didn't speak. Ruby didn't even look at her. She simply looked down on the water beneath her feet. Silence filled the space between them. Belle wanted to remove it she wanted to say something but no sound escaped her mouth so she gave up to speak and instead she looked down as well. It wasn't until a while later that Ruby took a piece of paper from next to her and handed it Belle. Belle hadn't even noticed it earlier but as she held the piece of paper in her hands she didn't quite know what to do. It was a letter, though. Belle read over it and with every line her eyes widened.

"They, they can't do that-" She said, and looked up to Ruby with the letter still in front of her, "can they?" Ruby faced Belle now. "They do," Ruby said. "But she is your daughter! They left her, the judges now that!" "They are still _her_ parents."

The letter said that Emma and Neal had claimed custody for Sofia. Ruby looked at Belle like a lost puppy. Without any further thoughts Belle put her arms around Ruby. "They won't take her away from you. _You_ are her mother." Belle said. Her voice was very calm now. She stroke Ruby's hair and although she couldn't see Ruby's face she still knew that Ruby wouldn't believe her.

"A mother isn't simply someone to give birth to a child, you know, a mother is there for the child and loves them no matter what. They don't just leave their children they are always there for them. They bring them to their beds at night, and give them a goodnight kiss, mothers are so much more than the ones to give birth to a child, and Sofia knows that _you_ are her mother, that you are her mommy. And you're a marvelous mother. I've seen how much Sofia adores you, admires you. She loves you and you love her the way only a mother can love her child."

Ruby looked up. She couldn't reply with anything. Belle made her speechless. All these words about her being a good mother was the nicest compliment anyone had ever given her. And she could see that Belle meant it sincerely. It took her a moment to even smile. She really needed a moment to process those words, but once she actually heard them, really had them in mind she smiled. It gave her new hope.

* * *

My inside started to tackle at the sight of Belle's face. She was so beautiful especially with this light. The sun only set to rise and everything around us was covered in an orange hover. She made me feel special, loved. I knew I loved her in that moment I loved her for what she said. Somehow we moved closer to each another. I don't think either of us had noticed when or how, but we did. I felt a soft touch on my hand but I didn't dare to look away from her beautiful eyes. I felt how our fingers linked, how she didn't let go of my hand. She moved her lips closer to mine until she was close to touch them. I felt that my lips parted, that I kept breathes for myself. I didn't want to ruin this moment now. I had to forget about the cause of this situation. Our gaze didn't break from each another's eyes until Belle looked down on my lips. She asked for permission with her eyes and I noticed that she wanted this just as much as I wanted it to happen.

* * *

I felt her lips on mine. Soft, warm, a tender touch. My inside started to twist around and I felt my own hand rise to hold Ruby's cheek. This kiss was intense although we barely touched. There were so many emotions with this kiss, and I knew that I have never felt a kiss as much as I felt this one. I thought I could even hear a firework when our lips touched. I didn't think I would desire this to happen, it just happened but it didn't feel wrong the slightest.

We kissed until we were forced to stop and gasp for air. Our faces were still close and we both were kind of shocked. I breathed heavily and tried to control it. I saw Ruby's face blushing and the space between us, which was filled with silence earlier, was now covered with heat. We were so close I felt Ruby's throat rise and lower with every of her breaths. She looked at me. I couldn't remember the last time I've seen anything as beautiful as her. We were both speechless. My whole body felt amazing but most of all I could feel my own face. It must have been incredibly red. I still tried to control my breath.

My mouth formed a smile, and with a raspy voice I whispered, "_hey_"

* * *

_**A/N: **__hola chicas and/or chicos _

_to begin with, i am sorry it took a longer time to update. it's getting more stressful in school at the moment, i think u can feel _

_anyway, wow guys to the lovely reviews so far! it really makes my day when i read that you'd like it! so please, keep reviewing and stuff and tell me what you think! :)_

_and finally we come to some fluff. i planed to put the abuse and swan thief a bit aside for most of the upcoming chapter, which will be a shorter one (way shorter). i wanted it to be mostly red beauty aka without kids and only belle and ruby. i hope i will be done with it the next days, so i can focus on school a bit more. anyway, thank you for reading this story!_

_it's my pleasure to write it down, and i hope you enjoy this story. _

_love, your laura (aka lala we friends u can say lala. *bro fists reader*) xx _


	5. Your Bones

_A/N: enjoy :') {nervous smile}_

* * *

They walked home in silence. It wasn't an awkward silent or embarrassed silent between them. It was just silent, calm and almost warm. They're hands were linked until they reached the end of the forest. With heavy hearts they decided to let go in case someone saw them. They walked home to Ruby's. When they went through the Diner, Granny was still baking and preparing for the day and to let her know they'd arrived Ruby shouted.

It was early after all, the sun only began to rise. The time hadn't changed much since their kiss happened. Once they reached the apartment some awkwardness arose. They didn't know what they should do. It was way too early for preparing breakfast, though so that was off the list. That was when Ruby let out a big yawn. It reminded Belle strangely much of a puppy's yawn and it caused Belle to giggle. "We could rest a bit. I mean it's still early." Belle murmured shyly and Ruby agreed. Belle went to Ruby's bedroom when she noticed that Ruby had parted and went in the direction of their living room. "Ruby?" Belle whispered looking around the corner with a smile. "Hm?" Ruby turned her head. Belle didn't say much more. She only held her hand out to Ruby to signal to come with her instead. Ruby was kind of nervous when she took the hand but Belle's smile took her concerns away.

They lied on Ruby's bed and simply looked at each another for a long moment. Now and then they smiled at each others blushing and somehow it happened that they moved closer. Their faces were incredibly close when Ruby whispered, "You've morning breath," before she kissed Belle again. It was an innocent kissing and it didn't leave Belle insecure instead she moved her head and kissed Ruby's cheek, "You're sweaty," she said and the placed another kiss on Ruby's lip. They both smiled while they exchanged more kisses.

Belle pressed her lips against Ruby's for an endless moment before she rested her forehead against hers. Their noses touched and both smiled. Belle had her eyes closed while Ruby's were open. Belle sighed happily before she slowly opened her eyes. Ruby opened her mouth in attempt to tell Belle how pretty she was but no sound left her throat. A deep red covered her cheeks. "Yes?" Belle asked with a sheepish smile. "Nothing, you're just-" Ruby moved a strand of Belle's hair out of her face "-beautiful." The distance between them was small after all and their faces were only centimeters apart. Belle closed the distance between them and put her arms around Ruby's waist. Her head was resting on Ruby's arm and Ruby had her arms wrapped around Belle's body.

"I almost forgot how it felt to kiss someone you like," Belle said calmly. Ruby chuckled before she pressed a kiss on the top of Belle's head.

"The last time I felt that way was in High School" Belle added slightly embarrassed as she remembered. "Did you never feel that way when you kissed Gaston?" Ruby asked carefully. "He was whom I kissed in High School. He was the typical High School athlete. You know, handsome, popular and I thought he was funny. Well, what I could tell from the distance." Belle's voice was calm. "I was ordinary. Most of the time I spent in the library reading about adventures and love stories and handsome men and somehow I thought Gaston was one of them. He never noticed me, though. Imagine my surprise when he asked me out to prom. You can picture how excited I was. The boy I was admiring from afar finally noticed me and I was so under his spell I didn't see, well more like I didn't want to see, how rude he was. And then, at the night of the prom I wore a gorgeous yellow dress and I felt like a princess." Belle smiled, although tears started to gather in the corner of her eyes, "He didn't notice me most of the evening. At the end of the night he kissed me and it was as if I had forgotten everything that had happened. He wanted me to do more with him than just kissing, and I'd let him… He didn't speak to me for the rest of our school time met again in College and I honestly thought he'd changed."

Belle sat up and crossed her legs. She tried to hide her tears under her smile. She wanted to play it down, pretend as if it hadn't hurt her but Ruby knew better. She took Belle's hand and Belle continued, "but what it feels like to kiss you it's just-" Belle searched the air for words she couldn't find. She sighed deeply and looked back at Ruby. She cupped Ruby's face and moved closer to her. "I want to kiss you," she whispered "I want to tell you every day, do other things with you-" she winked. Ruby was somehow speechless. She wasn't sure how she should response to her so instead she kissed her again, looked in her eyes and whispered "Me too."

* * *

Both of us fell asleep, but as I woke up I noticed how I still held Belle in my arms. She cuddled herself in my side and I honestly wished she would never let go again. I inhaled her smell as I breathed. She still smelled a bit like forest but it was mixed with the scent her shampoo. I looked down upon her face. The sun kissed her lips and made them look even softer. She was too gorgeous for words. She looked so in peace with herself, worriless. I wished she would never worry again. After memorizing every feature of Belle for the billionth time and wondering how one person could possibly be so beautiful, I got distracted by the blanking numbers of the alarm clock. It was almost 8 am, which meant the alarm would go off soon and would wake Belle. I stretched my arm over the sleeping beauty and shut the bottom off.

I rise, placed a kiss on Belle's forehead and decided to take a shower because I noticed that I was still wearing my sweaty clothes. On the way to the bathroom I crossed Sofia's room and found the three of them cuddled close to one another. They looked so calmed, I hadn't noticed but my mouth formed a smile. I looked closer and noticed that Sofia's face was changing to a frown. She must have a troubling dream. I stayed in the door frame and watched until her face relaxed and eventually formed a smile before I finally took my shower.

* * *

I'm wandering through the night, all alone by myself. I only have a half loaf of bread with me, the clothes I'm wearing and that's all. My parents passed away and left me here alone. I wander some more until an elderly lady crossed my way. She is weak and hungry so I offer her a bite of my bread. She takes it although she struggled with herself and tried hard to refuse the offer. We start to talk about all kinds of different things and as I leave, I open her hands and place the rest of the loaf on her palms. Although I now have less than I had before, I could not stop smiling. The happiness that shone over the old lady's face made it even. As I walk further I meet a group of little children, far tinier than I am and I wonder if I've ever been that small. They are freezing and their teeth shake. The sight of them makes me sad. They are more lost than I am so I take my shirt off and give it to the children. They wrap themselves tightly in it and although I am freezing now, it was worth to see their tiny faces shine brightly. I walk on and when I turn around one more time I saw that the kids had laid themselves to sleep. Maybe they will dream of their parents. I walk aimlessly through the forest and I must admit that I'm scared. The dark forest, which surrounds me, makes it feel like thousands of faces are watching me. After a while I finally arrive at a place from where I can see the open sky. The moon stands high above but a cold wind is blowing. My skin raises in goose bumps and so I sit down on the grass and wrap my arms around my knees. I hope it will keep me warm enough and still I can't help the tears rolling down my cheeks. The warm, tiny tears feel like as if they were piercing my face. When suddenly everything becomes bright and it makes me wonder if I died.

From the sky, lights begin to fall. Not lights, the stars! The stars fall on me, my face and my body. My naked body is covered in a golden dress now. It is beautiful. I sit up and look upon the sky. The stars keep falling, I fear that soon there won't be many stars left in the sky. One star falls down on my cheek and it dries my tears. Suddenly I notice that there are many coins all around me. I watch another star fall and when it reaches the ground it becomes money. I hold it up in awe. I have to be dead; there is no other explanation. I stuff the money in my pockets and feel how my dress becomes heavier and heavier. I try not to be too greedy but I can't help it right now. Eventually the stars stop falling and I fall on my knees exhausted and tired. I don't feel cold anymore but the forest around me seems darker than it did before. I curled and wrapped my arms around my knees. I somehow think itt would protect me if anything bad were to happen. I don't think I'm dead anymore but let's face it, what just happened was almost magical. I feel my eyes getting heavier and after a while they closed entirely.

When I wake up the sun already stands high above me. I can't remember which direction I came from so I decide to simply go straight ahead. It is hard to walk with all the money in my dress so I decide it was for the best to leave some of it here where I stand. I go on and after a while I hear cracking wood around me. There is a woman walking through the forest as if she was looking for something. She wears a beautiful white hood. But the thing I noticed most immediate were her eyes. They're green almost as green as the forest surrounding us. This woman fascinates me. Although she has a bow and arrows with her I'm not scared. She just doesn't seem like she would hurt me. I jump in surprise as I feel a tap on my shoulder. I turn around and another woman stands behind me.

"Hey, what are you doing in the forest all alone?" I don't understand how I'm shy now. The night before I talked to several people, but somehow I don't want to tell this woman that I have nowhere to go. I go a step aside and hold onto a tree. I look to her face, she has green eyes as well but her eyes have a yellow touch. But both of them have dark hair. I think they might be sisters. The woman in front of me wore a gorgeous red cloak. I couldn't take my eyes off it as if it has some kind of magical attraction. It shimmers a bit golden, beautiful. I reach my hand and touch it. It was really soft and then I look up to the woman's face and smile. She had an infectious smile. "I'm Rose, and that's my friend Mary." I didn't notice that the woman with the white cloak stands behind me. I look up to her and back at Rose. "My name is Nataly."

* * *

Ruby had prepared breakfast for the children. Pancakes as well as waffles with different kinds of fruits. Sofia told her that Nathan and Lucas both liked caramel better than chocolate syrup so she made some of that, too. The breakfast was down in the diner so she went upstairs to wake the bundle up, but they were already awake. To Ruby's surprise they were silently drawing on Sofia's floor. "Morning," Ruby said with a bright smile before placing a kiss on Sofia's head. "How did you sleep, guys?" She asked the two boys directly, and of course they said that they slept well.

"I hope you like pancakes for breakfast?" the kids' faces lit up at the word pancakes. "Or would you rather have some waffles because I made both!" The children became excited "I have them downstairs in the kitchen. I'll be there in a minute, okay?" Sofia nodded her head in agreement and the trinity rushed downstairs. Ruby smiled to herself. Before leaving the apartment she couldn't help but peak in her room. Standing in the frame Ruby could see Belle's silhouette. She was still sleeping in Ruby's bed. With silent steps she went in her room and she sat down on the edge of her bed. Belle slept so sweetly Ruby almost didn't want to wake her up but it was already 10. Belle's face was hidden behind her hair and Ruby reached to move it to reveal Belle's face. Ruby was about to kiss Belle again, but she wasn't sure if that was a good idea. What if Belle already regretted kissing Ruby? Ruby softly poked Belle and immediately Belle opened her eyes, heavily. For a brief moment she was confused where she was until she saw Ruby and Belle had to smile.

"How do you do that?" Belle asked after a moment.

"What do you mean?"

"It's so early and you're already that stunning"

Ruby couldn't help the blush on her face neither could she stop herself as her upper body bend over until she almost kissed Belle. "I didn't know you could be that cheesy, Ms French." Belle laughed before she made the last move and kissed Ruby. When they broke the kiss Belle whispered "Morning" but the smile on her face didn't falter. Belle bit her lip and sat up. Now face to face to Ruby. She held her knees close to her body and both of them just watched another for a moment before Ruby nudged Belle's nose. "You're really cute when you're blushing." Ruby said. Belle buried her face in her arms in hope for the blush to disappear or at least to be hidden. Ruby giggled before she once more poked Belle's side. "Hey, I made breakfast. Do you want some?" Belle looked up and instead of saying yes or no she kissed Ruby. Belle pressed Ruby down and was now on top of her. She kissed Ruby deeply. She tried to taste as much of Ruby as she could before letting go and smiling satisfied. "I would really like that." Ruby was still slightly confused because of the sudden kiss. She brushed another strand of hair out of Belle's face and behind her ear. "Then get ready." She kissed Belle's forehead before leaving the room "I will wait downstairs with the kids, they're alone there." Ruby smiled and Belle understood. She was a bit disappointed but she got it.

* * *

I've been looking through the glass of the diner for almost half an hour now. I think I could tell who is who. This elderly lady, who entered just a couple of minutes ago had to be the infamous Granny so this means that this hot serving chick is Ruby. I could also see my boys sitting at a table with a tiny girl who I figured was Sophie or Sofa or something.

I lent against my car and flip a coin as I watched them. Belle just came in the picture and sat next to Nathan. She looks relaxed… She looks relaxed?! How can she be relaxed when I was sick worried! She's always been selfish.

My thought took me away and I had missed how Belle split cream all over herself. How can one be that stupid? I don't know. I see how hot bitch, Robin took Belle by the hand and lead her somewhere to another room. I figured that was a great moment to see my children.

* * *

"Hey guys!" Gaston said with a bright smile and placed himself next to Sofia. You could feel the boys suddenly tense once they saw their father. They feared for something to happen that was for sure. Sofia was unsure how to react. She heard stories of him the twins told her. She watched the big man with wide eyes.

His shoulders were big and strong like his arms. His stomach was flabby though like he would only train his arms on purpose. He still looked scary and a bunch of dark, black hair was on top of his head.

"How'd ya slept?" He said cool and sure of himself. He looked in the round of tiny faces and only Lucas answered with a good in response. Gaston asked "Where are your mommies?"

The twins looked to Sofia insecurely. "I think she's upstairs," Nathan whispered.

But there was no other response other than that. A vain started to pulsate on his forehead and you could tell how eagerly he tried to hold his anger back. "Could I go there?" He asked while gritting his teeth. Sofia was trying to say that she wasn't sure, but instead Nathan hesitated and said, "I'll show you"

Nathan climbed over his father and ran ahead without saying much more. His father could barely catch up so Nathan was in Ruby's apartment way earlier. He opened the door fast, shut it behind him and yelled "Mom! Dad is here he's coming up here!" before he even found his mother. The little boy knew that his mother was in trouble. What he didn't know, though, was what Ruby and Belle were doing right now.

Still in Ruby's arms Belle's eyes widened and with a rushing movement she freed herself and suddenly stood behind Nathan. She lowered herself and looked into his tiny face. She could tell how worried he was. Her own hand shook nevertheless she cupped his cheek. She tried to smile and to pretend nothing bad would happen. She still liked to think the kids never noticed their father's abusive behavior but whom was she trying to fool. They knew and she now knew they knew. She held his cheek, licked her lip and opened her mouth just when Gaston entered the flat.

* * *

Sofia and Lucas nervously sat in their seats. They looked at each another and feared every future sound they might hear or make. Because Sofia didn't know where to look she looked down on her plate. Lucas was close to tears and looked around the diner to keep himself distracted. It took them a moment to react properly and to understand the situation. Granny who was behind the bar looked up to them and noticed their faces. She looked at Lucas, but what he saw wasn't the sweet boy she knew. Sitting in their place, was a sincerely scared little boy next to a scared girl. She went up to them to ask what was going on but in the same moment Nathan entered the Diner again.

He was exhausted because he was running as fast as he could. Immediately he stood next to Widow and screamed, "He's going to hurt mommy!" with a cracked voice.

Granny was confused to the end. "Who?" "Father! They're upstairs!" This is when the boy started to cry, "I-i-i wanted to stay u-u-upsairs! He never hurts her when we're around, but Mom said I should go."

Granny took the little man in her arms and patted his head. "It's okay, Nathan, you're a brave little boy," she let go but took his shoulders, "Now, take your brother and Sofia and go in the kitchen"

"In the kitchen?" He wiped his sleeve across his cheeks to try his tears. "In the kitchen." Granny encouraged him.

Granny looked around the diner, "Leroy! Call the sheriff and tell him to come here as fast as possible!" Leroy reacted a bit of confused, but Widow rushed out of the diner so fast he couldn't argue. He only did as he was commanded. Widow ran up the stairs and took the shotgun from the wall. With her foot she kicked the apartment's door open. For a split second her blood froze, she has seen a lot, but nothing was as horrible as seeing your granddaughter laying on the floor with blood over her face. A big man was strangling Belle against the other wall. He looked to Widow when he heard something click. Granny had load the gun and pointed it directly towards him. "Put her down," she said with a deep, dangerous voice.

"You think I wouldn't hit an old lady?"

"You think I wouldn't pull the trigger? I've killed men for things way less horrible than this." Her voice was still cool although inside she was upset. She needed all strength to really not pull the trigger.

He saw how serious the old lady was and slowly put Belle down without taking his gaze off Granny. As soon as Belle touched the floor he let go completely and Belle broke down. Belle gasped for air before she crawled fast over to Ruby. Ruby had passed out. She wasn't showing any reaction or any movement. The only sign of living was her chest, which still rose and lowered itself with every one of her breaths. Belle took Ruby's hand and kissed the back of it as if Gaston wasn't in the room. Tears stream down her face. She whispered in Ruby's ear, "I'm sorry, Ruby, I am so sorry. But I promise you everything is going to be okay, okay? You hear me? You're going to be fine." Her voice was cracking and she sounded as if she had to convince herself of what she just told Ruby. With shaking lips she kissed Ruby's cheek, "You're going to be okay."

* * *

_{whispers} hola, … one month_

_onE MONTH i'm sorry i'm upset about this myself but i really tried to continue earlier but i had some sort of blockade? yea…like i tried to come up with something but i just couldn't put it down with words. i think you can all relate to that :')_

_anyway, here's the new chapter, it's shorter than i hoped it to be and i will try to update more regularly (as we don't have any bigger exams left)_

_thank you all for reading, and please review and comments!_

_with love, lala xx_

_Ps: shout out to stevi ( .com) for being my BETA reader, this is the first chapter that was read BETA first so I think it's beta now (c wut i did thur) (sidenote: stevi is amazing)_

_pps: your bones is a song by of monsters and men (basically put my iPod on shuffle) (not really but i thought it'd fit) :)_


	6. Ce n'est pas une lettre d'amour

I couldn't remember leaving the house this morning to go to the market, now that I think of it. Nevertheless, I can remember when I received this bouquet of flowers. This guy gave them to me earlier when I bought some fruits from his stand. Now I'm on my way home, though.

I feel the fresh grass between my toes. The morning sun warmed it. It's causing a relaxed feeling inside of me so I don't even bother thinking about hurrying home. The river next to me splashes against stones and a wind blows cold air in my direction, for which I was endlessly thankful to be honest. My way goes along a field with hardly any trees, although there is a forest uphill the mountains but it would take me ages to go through the forest. On the other side of the river would be more trees, but there is no path.

I study the area around me even though I walked this way numerous times before, yet I still discover new things every now and then. This time I discover that under one of the bigger trees on the other side of the river there sits someone: a girl, I assume, I can't really see her through the high grass.

Somehow curiosity hit me, as it always does. I try hard to look through the grass and get a glimpse of her, or him, maybe it's just a big rock even? No, they are definitely moving.

I look down and see my reflection in the water. I'm thinking hard. I bit the corner of my mouth. That's a thing I do a lot when I can't decide whether or not to do something. And right now I'm conflicted whether to cross the river or not. It's rather heavy water but I think I could pass it. God, would my curiosity lead me that far? I don't know how I could explain that. I have this attraction towards it, and I just need to explore what's waiting for me.

I lift my skirt until under my knees and carefully tip my feet in the water. It's colder than I had expected it to be, but it was bearable. I put my other foot in the water too, and slowly move forwards. As expected the flow is heavy, but it's not that deep. My knees are hardly in contact with the water but now and then the current gets stronger and almost knocks me over. Almost.

Finally, I reach the other end. The hard, motionless ground feels strange at first. But soon I get used to it again although my body is still shaking as if waves hit me. I'm standing up and look over to the tree. I was right before, it is a girl. She looks about my age 14 or 15, around that. I think she is sleeping but I'm not sure. A book is placed in her lap, but it looks way too thick for me to read. As I move closer to her with attend of not making any noises, I notice that a bookmark was placed almost at the end of the book. I look up to her face and she isn't sleeping, in fact she's just looking up into the tree, she doesn't even notice me, yet.

"What are you looking at?" I say as smooth as the heat allows me to be. She gasps and looks at my face. She's somehow confused, which I understand and I try keep on a friendly smile. She replies with a smile as well then points up, "There's a squirrel."

I have to giggle at her accent. I hadn't heard such an accent before and I'm sure I won't forget it soon. I look up the tree but couldn't see one. I shift my head to the sides and search for it. Although I get a peek of its tail or ear somehow, I never see it at the fullest.

The girl notices my helplessness. She stands up, takes my hand, and leads me under the spot where she was sitting just seconds ago. All of this happened without any sound. "Oh, look at that", I hear myself say as surprised as if I would have never seen a squirrel before. It was pealing a pine cone and carefully picking out the delicious seeds, which, in fact, I indeed never witnessed before. The squirrel is a careful eater. It looks almost as if someone wanted to steal its food. "It's a red squirrel," the girl next to me whispered. For a brief moment my attention lead to her voice before I look back up.

"Red is my favourite colour" I murmur without even realising it.

"Red squirrels are unusual to be around here, though, that's why I was so fascinated by it. I've seen many grey squirrels while reading but never a red squirrel."

Her voice sounds so adorable when she's excited. I already like her. She's happy about a little thing such as a squirrel eating and I find that admirable. "I'm not sure if I ever saw a red squirrel before today, but now I'm sure I have…because it's happening today, as in right now." I don't know what I'm saying. She's looking at me and she looks like holding back a giggle, I can see that. She shakes her head and finally let that giggle go. She raises her hand, "I'm Belle," she says. I'm ironically pouting but then laugh, too and take her hand. "I'm Rose but you can say Red. Somehow many people call me Red, I don't really know why now that I think of it." Her skin is really soft. "Maybe because of your cloak and dress and hair band," Belle states while pointing at all of these things with her free hand. "Probably."

I try to stay serious but my face decides to giggle anyway. Belle responds with a giggle and I swear I've never heard anyone ever having such an infectious laugh. It sounds like "ak ak ak" rather than "haha". It's adorable and causes that I have to laugh even harder.

After a while both of us just sigh deeply before we fall down against the tree. I fall on her book. "Oh, sorry" I say while I move it from behind me and hand it to Belle. It looks heaver than it is to be honest, but that's probably because I'm used to carry Granny's heavy baskets. Belle in exchange hands me my basket. I haven't even notice that we switched places until now. I thank her and look at the flowers. Neither did I notice until now that these flowers were extremely gorgeous. Have they been so pretty before? I'm not sure to be honest but I mean they had to be.

Their blooms are redly pink and fate to a yellowy cream tone at the top. I don't know what flowers they are exactly but they look like they are a sweet. I lead my nose to the flowers and indeed, their smell is sweet, almost too sweet for my taste. "hmm" I look up to Belle. She is watching me with an incredibly lovely smile. So lovely I totally forget about the weirdness in her spying on me. "Smell this", I say the same moment as I hand the flower to her. Her pinkie finger hardly touched my hand but I still feel it. I try to make it go away and rub the place with my other hand. I can feel how my face smiles awkwardly but I try not to blush, which is a challenge. Belle smells the flower, "Hmm, it's delicious. Reminds me of my mother." Her face lights up although her voice lost volume. "You can have them," She looks at me for a brief moment before she thanks me. Her smile as sweet as the flower smells, even sweeter. If I was successful to not blush before, latest now I honour my name. I can literally feel the red in my face and turn away.

It's like the first time that I notice her dress. It was fancy, way fancier than anything I would own, though. I look around the tree and there was a blanket either, also fancy. It was a deep wine red with a purple shade. I can't help but touch it. It was really soft. Softest thing I ever touched before or at least I can't remember anything that soft. With a golden thread Belle's name is screwed in. It has all kind of different curves and decoration.

She's a princess. She has to be. I look up only to find her looking at me, still. Is she judging me? She doesn't look like that really, I mean she smiles after all. Maybe she has never seen a peasant in real life? She doesn't seem like the kind of princess who would ignore her people, though. "So far away from the castle, princess?" I try to be cooler, not that foolishly childish as before. She laughs and ends in a deep sigh. "I'm happy whenever I can leave that horrible place, to be honest." That was when she realized what she just said and her eyes open wide in shock, "It's not what I meant, I meant like-" but I waved her off. Rude action from my party. "You don't have to justify yourself, princess, it's alright, really." There was her gorgeous smile again. I can't help but feel connected with her somehow.

I don't see how she bites her bottom lip. I pull a grass straw out the ground and play with it a bit, destroying it nervously. Curiosity strikes in again, damn it.

"I can't imagine what's so horrible about living in a castle." I murmur.

It seems like I upset her, somehow, "Be happy that you can't, Red."

"I'm sorry"

* * *

Ruby's eyes tried to open and felt as heavy as if stones hung upon her lids. The actual process of waking up was even harder because it was dark wherever she was. With her eyes yet to be closed she noticed that she was lying on her favourite blanket. Further touches told her that she was in her bed. After minutes she was finally able to open her eyes to a level were she could at least see the room. She was in her bedroom that was for sure. Her head ached and she wanted to massage her forehead with her hand, maybe it would get better that way. A sudden pain pierced through her head when she touched her forehead above her eyebrow. She felt a wound there but she couldn't remember where she got it from, yet.

She looked around her room slowly and tiredly. Her eyes got used to the darkness but there was light still entering through the window. It was the moon and as she followed its way into the room she saw that in the corner in her big chair someone was lying.

Huddled together under a blanket and with a book on her lap Belle was sleeping. She made hardly any sound. Ruby was still feeling dizzy as she fell back asleep.

Only hours later Ruby awoke again. The moonlight was replaced by the sunshine but Belle's spot was empty. It took Ruby a lot of energy to sit up. She had to get up really slowly as her head ached with every faster move. She had a strange taste in the mouth and it felt awkwardly dry. She wanted to get up and fetch a glass of water, but her body wouldn't allow that just yet. After another few attempts of trying she finally managed to stand up.

On her way to the kitchen she passed her full body mirror. When she saw herself it was as if she woke up from a nightmare and now she could remember everything that happened. How Gaston was suddenly standing in her door frame and yelled for Belle to come although their little boy was right in front of him. He simply didn't care any more. His head was red from the inner rage and anger. Other than Belle who's first attempt was to keep her son safe. She told him, forced him really to go downstairs. Their son knew, though, he knew what was going to happen. Although Belle tried all their lives to keep it a secret from them they knew after all. Ruby's head started aching and she couldn't stop the flashbacks. She could literally see Gaston moving towards Belle and her body lost control. When Gaston held his hand high to hit Belle Ruby jumped in front of Belle without any further thought and Ruby was thrown against the wall. Everything from then on was a blur and she didn't know which part was imagined and which actually happened. But she found herself lying on the floor again.

She didn't know how long she slept, how long had she just stare at the mirror? Anyway, she felt like a kicked pup but thinking of it, she didn't regret her action. Belle had to go through such a pain, probably worse, a lot more often and if Ruby could save her at least once from such pain then of course she wouldn't regret it. Nevertheless, her head still ached. She decided to get an aspirin to help the pain.

She was now in front of the kitchen sink. She had emptied at least three glasses of water and the next was to go. After a couple of minutes after she had taken two aspirin she felt a bit better. Her head stopped aching that much. It still hurt, obviously, but it was on a bearable level now.

Since she woke up she had noticed that there was a bandage on her forehead above her wound. Belle must have put it on there before leaving this morning. Ruby found herself once more staring at her reflection in the mirror. Patiently and as carefully as possible she removed the band-aid The wound, which was revealed, was bigger than she thought but it was still kind of decent, compared to Belle's bruises. Ruby's finger slide over her bruise, but it didn't hurt as much as it did that night.

Somehow her curiosity and fascination had a bigger weight than the pain she had. She wasn't used to physical pain, all she ever felt was emotional pain really. Pain caused by her ex partners and people who'd left her in general.

Her eyes wander from her face to the other side of the room, where she found Belle's reflection. There was an unusual distance between them. Belle's eyes looked empty, cold even. Her mouth showed her sincere emotions, as her lips were slightly shaking. Ruby turned around and looked at Belle.

"Ruby I-" Belle began but Ruby moved fast towards her. Pressed against the wall Belle tried again "I'm-" but Ruby cut her off with a deep kiss. The kiss was filled with anger, sympathy and simply the need for silence. Strangely enough that she was also glad. Glad that Belle was safe and well. The anger was towards Gaston, obviously. He hurt Belle several times and Ruby believed that he hurt her way more than he had hurt her. And sympathy for Belle, although Ruby didn't want to feel sympathy. Yet, she couldn't help it.

Ruby pressed Belle harder against the wall. Her head started to ache again. Tears started to stream down Ruby's cheeks. Both her hands framed Belle's face and within a kiss she exhaled, "I'm so happy you're alright." "Me?" Belle broke the kiss for a moment, she didn't quite understand. She asked again, "Me? You! Are you alright?" "I'm happy you're alright," Ruby cupped Belle's cheeks, her thumb stroke over her cheek. Ruby didn't know if her painkillers had kicked in or if there was another reason why she didn't have pain that moment. Maybe it was Belle's face. Belle had never experienced before that anyone would ever care for her well being, and now Ruby did. Ruby who got beaten up by her husband because of her, who was sleeping for days, her, who would be the first one to care about Belle. Belle responded with a kiss too, filled with more love than she could have ever shared and Ruby could feel that. That's how they were tor a couple of minutes. They stood there against the wall and kissed.

Belle held her head in the air in front of Ruby. She swallowed heavily and then breathed deeply. She stroke above Ruby's throat and coughed.

"You should rest" Belle suggested and Ruby did so without protest. She'd already been exhausted again although she had just woken up.

Ruby fell asleep immediately. Belle stroked her face and then placed a kiss on Ruby's forehead. Belle decided to go downstairs in the diner to get some food done in case Ruby would wake up hungry.

Downstairs she was met with Granny, of course, who looked more worried than usually. "How's she?" She asked. Belle's heart would have shuttered in pieces if she hadn't known that Ruby had woken up. She hugged Granny and said, "Do you think she'd rather have mac and cheese or grilled cheese when she wakes up again?" "What do you-" "She woke and we uhm talked for a couple of minutes. She was still pretty exhausted so I told her to rest some more. I'm sure though she'll wake up soon." Granny's facial expression changed slightly. You could tell she was happy that Ruby woke up but she was still worried.

Belle had never experienced anyone worrying about her until she met Ruby. Her stomach started to feel weird but she couldn't tell where it came from. Belle held one hand on her belly the other rested upon her head. Although her stomach ached she somehow had a weird smile ghosting over her lips. Why was that, she wondered. The pain in her belly was bearable and somehow it even felt good although it made her feel weird. It's really complicated to describe.

Widow had noticed Belle's awkward position while she had put down a plate from the shelf. "You alright?" Granny asked.

"Yea, it's nothing. I just, I feel a bit strange. Maybe it's because of the stress, you know." Belle smiled.

Granny snickered and raised her eyebrows. "Yeah," she murmured, "I know" Granny said on her way to the door.

* * *

I decided to prepare grilled cheese because you could eat it even when it had cooled off, so I thought it was a good idea. When I entered Ruby's bedroom though she was already awake, but still laying in her bed. She aimlessly looked out of the window with her phone in both hands. "Hey," I sang quietly as I placed the plate on her bed, "here, I thought you might be hungry." Her attention was now towards me and when she looked at me I could see her bruise again. The swelling had gone back a bit but it was still pretty blue. I asked if it still hurt, "only when I touch it. Now I can't even feel it's there" "Do you have headache?" "Took something to help it."

She had a calm smile on her lips and she looked endlessly admirable. I sat down on the edge of her bed and just looked at her while she ate. Now and then she'd look up and I couldn't help but smile. After she had finished the sandwich she finally asked, "What?" She looked embarrassed, but I couldn't tell why so. She still smiled slightly. I leant forwards and whispered, "Nothing, you're just really pretty."

Her smile disappeared suddenly. She had a blush over her face minutes ago but now she was chalk white. Ruby directed her face towards the window again without any further response. I held my hand to touch her face, but she cut me off with her own hand. "Don't," she said so silent I could hardly hear her while she lowered her head. I looked for her eyes. "Hey," I say when she finally let me look at her, "I mean it." I try to smile as sincerely as I could because really, I felt like crying seeing her like that. She was beautiful. Not any less beautiful than when we first met. To be honest, now that I knew her she's even more beautiful and she becomes more and more gorgeous with every passing day.

But now she can't see it, and even though I tell her how beautiful she is she won't believe it. She, again, didn't response so I simply placed a kiss on the corner of her mouth. A kiss on her mouth would be inappropriate right now, and a kiss on her cheek would be too distance so the corner of her mouth is probably the best solution.

For a moment I held her in my arms and stroke her hair. It was soft and smelled good, although she didn't leave her bed for days. After a while I place another kiss on the top of her head and take the plate to bring it to the kitchen. When I came back Ruby was about to fall asleep again. "She's at Emma's," I noticed that there was a picture of Sofia showing on her phone screen. Ruby's eyes didn't open. "Yea, I know," she murmured. She sighed deeply, "I called her earlier." Then she fell asleep completely.

I sat down on the chair across the room, took a piece of paper and a pen and began to write.

* * *

"Whom did you talk to?" Mama asked while she placed a bowl of soup in front of me. "Mom woke up," I let her know. I took the spoon and ghosted through the soup, "but she's still feeling really tired. Is it okay if I visit her tomorrow?" Emma looked kind of shocked but I couldn't tell why. Was it because Mom woke up or because I would like to see her? I figured it was because she woke up already. Dr Whale, the doctor who examined her, said that she was stable enough to stay at home until she woke up, but he wasn't sure how long she'd sleep. He said at least a week probably longer but it's only been three days now.

I was surprised too, to be honest, but glad she was already awake. I worried though, but Mama took my hand and said, "Of course you can see her tomorrow." Emma smiled and I couldn't remember the last time I'd seen her smile with tears in her eyes.

"You're okay with it?" I asked.

"Of course, why wouldn't I?"

"Because it'd mean that I will stay at hers again soon," I tried to say it as calm as possible, although I kind of was scared how she'd react. Her facial expression changed almost immediately. She cleared her throat and I watched her, waiting what would come.

"Neal and I, we applied for your custody, and as your biological parents we-" I pulled my hand free from hers. My eyes were wide and filled with tears I could feel that.

"You want to steal me from my mother?"

"Well, actually I-I'm your mother and she stole you-"

"She didn't steal me… you left me." I was crying but I was scared to finish what I was about to say. Emma's face shattered and I wanted to hug her and say I was sorry ,but I knew I was right. She left me. She left my mom. She left me.

I decided it would be best to go to my room and not yell everything at her that I wished to say. She tried hard to make it up, she really did, but that wouldn't change the fact that she left me. That she had chosen Neal over me and that she wasn't my mother, at least not the way Ruby was my mother.

When I passed her she once again gripped my hand. "Hey, where are you going?" "To my room, I won't just run away like you did." I freed my hand and went upstairs. I knew she was watching me. As soon as I entered the room I closed the door and cried again.

* * *

Ruby's head ached. The effect of the aspirin has subsided and Belle was gone again. Ruby rubbed her head with her fingers as she sat up. Before Belle left she had prepared some aspirin for Ruby and had placed them on her night-stand right next to a letter and also flowers. They seemed awkwardly familiar to Ruby, yet she was sure she never saw these flowers before but their sweet smell filled the air. She took the aspirin with a glass of water and then took a flower out to sniff on it. Very sweet indeed.

She took the letter and unfold it carefully. Belle's handwriting is proportional to her character: elegant at first with childish cuteness. Ruby led the flower to her nose and smelled on it as she read the lines.

"The last days I've been watching you sleep, it sounds creepy I know, but I needed to stay by your side until I knew you were going to be alright.

I'm sorry all of this happened and I'm sorry you're hurt. I've never wanted any of this. Gaston is in jailed, by the way, Granny had the courage to do something that was a necessary thing to do for years. If only I hadn't been such a coward all these years and would have actually went to the police or somewhere and told them about Gaston, but then again maybe we wouldn't have met. However, we can't change the past and I certainly can't change it, but what I can do is go on from now on, and I want to go on with you.

I, … I like you. I like everything about you, all the things I know so far and I'm already in love with everything I don't know, yet. I hope you understand. I only say that I like you because I don't know any other way to tell you these things.

I'm not really good with such things, writing letters I mean. I've never got a letter, but I read about them. *_chuckles_*.

I've never had anyone to care for me, either and I've never had anyone who basically sacrificed herself for me. I've never thought I was worth it enough, but you make me feel special and I hope I can make you feel special too.

I like you. I like you a lot, more than I've ever liked anyone before to be quite honest. You're funny, clever, brave and the most beautiful person I've ever seen. To be honest there aren't enough adjectives in the English language to describe how amazingly wonderful you are. You become more and more beautiful with every day we get to spend together, and your bruises didn't harm your beauty. I like how you're not only a mother to your daughter but also her best friend and someone she trusts. You're an amazing mother.

I like how you make me laugh about jokes I don't really get simply because you say them. I could mention hundreds of things with which I'm in love about you and I wouldn't have said anything at all.

I tried to write something cute for you because I won't be there when you wake up. I hope you don't mind that I will be coming tomorrow again to see how you are.

Love, Belle"

Ruby re-read the letter a couple of times before she picked up her phone and started to type a message. Several seconds after she pressed send Belle's phone told her she received a message by Ruby.

"I like that I'm in love you."

* * *

_hola readers!_

_I just want to say that i'm glad many people like this fanfic and decided to follower it. thank you ^^_

_reviews would make me really happy by the way :)_

_love, laura xx_


	7. Author's Note

Dear Reader/s,

thank you for keeping up with this fanfiction so far. I really appreciate that, thank you.

The thing with The Flowers of Spring is that I'm not happy where it is going to this point. You see, the story seems to me personally like single pieces somehow cut together and single storylines were not worked out/thought through well. I'm disappointed to be honest because I rushed it way too much. So I decided to stop at this point with FoS, in case any of you want to read further or think it's not that bad then I will of course continue. But only if a certain amount of people say so, otherwise I will delete FoS entirely within the next two weeks.

For now I have thought of two fanfictions I want to write. One Sleeping Red (aka Aurora and Ruby/Once Upon a Time) and Brittana (Brittany and Santana/Glee). Both of the ideas I have so far mean way more to me than FoS so I will try to write it better and have a proper plot.

Thank you for reading, again and I hope you will check up and read my further fanfictions!

With love, Laura aka Lala xx


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